And speaking of peaches and plums, another "problem in translation" comes to mind.
Before I start, I wanted to mention that over at China Beat, a comment took issue with some translations that appeared in a post called Boss Hu and the Press. The comment was, I quote
By the way Hu zong 胡總 is the short form of 胡總書記 and should be translated as "Hu General-Secretary".
Even though 胡總 could also be the short form of 胡總經理 or 胡總裁(Boss Hu), but obviously that is not the case. Please be careful with translation.
Like I said here: Some will complain but the truth is, in translation: you just can't win-- all the more so in Beijing/Taipei, it seems...(Of course, one should always try and be careful).
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Anyway, back to peaches. A few years ago I was working on a China World Heritage Sites video documentary translation about Wulingyuan, in Hunan Province, and came across this sentence concerning the origin of the name:
かつて、この一帯は桃とスモモが取れる場所として知られていて、桃李源と呼ばれていました。
Which I tentatively translated as
Because the area used to be known for its peaches and
plums, it was known as Taoli, or "fields of peaches and plums."
While the phrase 桃李源 appears all over the net on Chinese sites, being used as the name of schools, restaurants, shops, teashops, etc., there was no Japanese or English reference, and further, I could find nothing anywhere online in reference to Wulingyuan, so became worried and posted a question to my many senpai over at Honyaku.
A professor of Chinese studies at National University of Singapore wrote the following
I didn't notice your earlier posts on this, so I have no idea about the
background of your source text. However, I would like to offer some opinions about the terms based on the little knowledge I have.
1. If it was a place for "picking peaches and plums,", it could be 桃李園
instead of 桃李源. 桃李園 can be a generic name used to describe any place with the feature you mentioned.
2. However, I suspect it could be an error for 桃花源, which was a legendary paradise near ancient武陵, a place in China. 桃花源 became famous owing to the literary work of 陶淵明 entitled 桃花源記.
Almost simultaneously a Japanese senpai wrote similarly:
日本人は普通、「武陵桃源」という一つの熟語として習います。
武陵桃源＿buryou-tougen＿はGGの見出し語にもなっており：
an Arcadia, a Utopia, the Happy Valleyという語釈が与えられて（第4版）います。 GG5はまだ調べていませんが、a Shangrila という語釈が追加されてもいいのではないかと、私は考えています。
武陵桃源は陶淵明＿Tou Enmei＿(田園詩人、AD365～427）の
『桃花源記』＿Toukagenki＿に出てくる架空の土地の名称です。
日本人相手には、『桃花源記』とは浦島太郎の竜宮伝説と、終戦を
知らずにフィリピンに何十年も隠れ続けていた横田さんの挿話を
いっしょにしたようなお話であるという説明をすると、分かり
やすいでしょう。
[trans] Most Japanese learn the kanji compound 、「武陵桃源」 during their school days. Looking up the term in the Green Goddess (Editition 4), I come up with "An arcadia, a utopia, happy valley." I haven't checked edition 5 but what about a "Shangri La"?
「武陵桃源」 is the place name that appeared in pre-Tang pastoral poet, Tao Yuanming's AD365～427 work Peach Blossom Spring 『桃花源記』. Japanese people associate the image of Peach Blossom Spring with the Urashima Taro legend (Japan's Rip Van Winkle), who, like Yakota-san stayed in hiding for decades in the forests of the Philippines because he didn't realize the war was over.
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Sure enough, wiki explains that, The name Peach Blossom Spring (桃花源 Tao Hua Yuan) has since become the standard Chinese term for 'utopia'.
At this point, I was truly satisfied, but turning the translation over, I was told, that
「武陵桃源」（Utopia）という架空の地名と原文にある実在の「桃李源」は違うのではないかと思います。「桃李源」のピンインを調べましたら「Tao Li Yuan」ですので、it was known as Tao Li Yuan, or "fields of peaches and plums."で良いのではないでしょうか？
[trans] The 桃李源 in the document is not the same thing as "The Field of Peach Blossoms," so let's just go with your original "field of peaches and plums..."
That is what they went with, I'm sure, but I later found out from another Chinese native-speaker, that the Chinese don't even use 源 in the same way to signify "source." In Chinese, he explained, this character is used to signify "spring"... (like in Palm Springs)
I never really felt the issue was resolved, but as I said it was an obscure question-- for the Japanese translation community, at least. Last week, though, on NHK High Vision, there were running a short series on China called 中国の桃源郷～ and it all came painfully back to me. The series did begin in Hunan.. In the end, I just cannot help wondering if these phrases with peaches and plums don't all just refer to Shangri La?
桃李源=桃源郷=武陵源
Finally, I have been thinking of Borges' story Averroes Search, in which Averroes grapples with his task of translating Aristotle, using a "translation of a translation" (For "Averroes was ignorant of both Greek and Syriac") (See this post) Borges, himself was a master translator and delighted in taking all kinds of liberties-- which would be impossible in today's world. As one Borges scholar (Melvyn Bragg's guest below) says, "He wouldn't simply translate, he would often modify." (For example, he changes the gender of a character in an Oscar Wilde play and then again in an Edger Allen Poe story). For more on this, highly recommended is this Melvyn Bragg show on Borges.
Translation as Borges' labyrinth...?
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Peaches, also known in China as "fairy fruit" (仙果） have always been associated with longevity, immortality and the magical world of Taoist hermits. Hence, the lingering issue was-- and remains-- the plums.
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