A Monument of Poetry Built By William Shakespeare & Others

A Monument of Poetry Built By William Shakespeare & Others

莎士比亞的詩歌紀念碑

Edited & Translated by Fu Zhengming

傅正明譯著

唐山出版社 2016年

（Tonsan Publications Inc. Taipei, Taiwan, 2016）

About the Book

 

This book in three parts, entitled A Monument of Poetry Built By William Shakespeare & Others, is a bilingual anthology including 108 poems, translated into Chinese with both classical and modern Chinese forms and styles. The Introduction to the book, entitled “The Obscure Luminosities,” is an analysis of Shakespeare's works from mainly the perspectives of politics and Buddhism.The first part is a new poetical translation of some of William Shakspeare’s works, including the top 10 sonnets, a whole piece and extracts from the narrative poems, selected poetical speeches, poems and songs from the plays.The second part is a translation of selected poems by the possible authors of Shakespeare’s works. The third part is a new translation of selected poems on Shakespeare written by famous English and American poets.

About the Translator

 

   Fu Zhengming, Chinese poet, scholar and translator living in Sweden, was born in Shaoyang city in Hunan province in 1948 and graduated from the Chinese Department of Beijing University with a Degree of Master of Arts.

   Fu has written and published a number of books such as On the Ruins in Poland - Szymborska 's Art of Poetry and the Cultural Traditions (Beijing, 1998), Dark Poet Huang Xiang and His Colorful World ( New York, 2003), Comment on a Century of the Nobel Prize In Literature (Taipei, 2004), The Odyssey of the Tibetan Poets (Taipei, 2006)，The Structure of World Literature (Taipei, 2013). In the area of translation, Fu’s numerous works include The Art of Greek Comedy (Catherine Lever, E-C, Beijing, 1988),A New Translation of English Lyrics(Taipei, Commercial Press, 2012) , Five Hundred Poems from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam(Taipei,2015) and A New Translation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Douban Read, eBook, 2016).

 

Introduction

 

莎士比亞的隱秘的燦爛

Shakespeare’s Obscure Luminosities

 

 

Abstract

 

William Shakespeare’s works look like a male Mona Lisa with eyes of light and a smile hiding obscure luminosities.Dealing with the mysteries of authorship in his canon, this introduction introduces William Shakespeare’s life and his last will and testament by quoting and interpreting Ted Hughes’ poem entitled: “Shakespeare, drafting his will in 1605, plots an autobiographical play for 1606”. It also introduces briefly Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon and etc. as the possible authors of Shakespeare.

We will never solve all the mysteries out in Shakespeare's works. Aesthetics and politics, however, are two keys to unlock more or less them. The poet emphasizes the three themes of 'fair, kind and true' in one, proclaiming that virtue is beauty, and that inner beauty, especially in the verse, shines more than the outer one, and shall shine for ever. Shakespeare's political legacy, especially embodied in his narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece, classic play Julius Caesar, tragedy Hamlet and romance The Tempest. In The Rape of Lucrece and Julius Caesar, Shakespeare defends the rights of oppressed men and recognizes the legitimacy of overthrowing tyranny. Hamlet, in which the prince lives in the kingdom built upon the twin pillars of violence and lies, has huge implications for recognizing contemporary dictatorship and the source of the social cancer. In The Tempest, the dreams of the native Caliban are with both political and sexual meanings. After his dream for power seems dead, theprotagonist Prospero realizes that everything is empty.

The religious views of Shakespeare are a difficult subject because of the authorship question. We can only discuss his spiritual beliefs, his love and legacy, based on his published work. Shakespeare’s voices of mercy from the mouths of Portia in The Merchant of Venice and others, are that of a universal humanism in Christianity. In one of Shylock's speeches in the play we hear the protest of the Jew's human rights trodden under foot.

Shakespeare's humanism is combined with pantheistic and naturalistic elements, which are shared by Platonism and Buddhism. The great poet can be regarded as a Pratyekabuddha, "a lone buddha," one of different types of enlightened beings. His realization of emptiness is embodied in the speeches of some characters. In Shakespeare's works, we can see human nature as the combination of natural desire and reason, and the taming of the self or the self-taming of both the 'wolfish earls,' the aristocrats of the ruling class, and the lamblike but brutal people, which is sometimes the scene of the wolves and the lambs dancing together.

In analyzing the sonnet 29, the author notes that the poet-speaker’s love, the " master-mistress," cannot be read as a biological intersexed person but a symbol for spiritual androgyny, which is resemble to the harmony model of Yin and Yang or the temperament of tamper force with mercy (gangrouxiangji) in the Chinese Culture.

Keywords: authorship, beauty, politics, humanism, Buddhism, human nature, love, androgyny