Study of Sorrow : Translations

For many years, Song Dynasty Ci poetry has seemed eclipsed by the incandescence of Tang Poetry in the English-speaking world. In Study of Sorrows, Shangyang Fang aims to bridge this gap, translating the works of twenty-four Song Dynasty poets, many of whom are introduced to an English-speaking audience for the first time. Collated into seven parts, these poems move through grief, love, and longing, exploring the tension and connection between the material and immaterial world. Unlike traditional scholarly translations, these renditions represent the translator’s endeavor to breathe contemporary life into ancient poems, involving revisions of the original text, experimentations, even rewrites. A beautiful conversation between these poets and their translator unfolds. Shanyang masterfully navigates the irregularity of the lines, the elusiveness of the descriptions, the indirect approach to the subject, the precise musicality, the twisting language, and the unspeakable tenderness. As investigated here, “sorrow” is transformed from a mere individual sadness to a collective experience that spans time, people, and place.