THE CHAIRMAN (MR. GEORGE JAMIESON): Mr. Li T’ai-po was, I am afraid,
a bit of a Bohemian (laughter), and his Bacchanalian experiences have
been repeated in later days even with the great poets. I am sure you
will all join with me in expressing a hearty vote of thanks to Mr.
Waley for his address and the very felicitous language in which he has
translated a number of these ancient poems. I trust his paper will
be printed and preserved with the rest of our publications, because
these poems, as far as I can judge--but hearing them read does not
impress one so much as reading them at leisure--are well worthy of
careful perusal. It is curious to note how unchangeable and immobile
China is. At the time these poems were written we in Great Britain
were living under King Alfred and trying to keep out the Danes and
other things. (Laughter.) I can tell you that the Szechwan Road as
described in the poem that Mr. Waley has read is just the same now
as it was when the poem was written. And the social conditions of
the people are the same now as they were at that time. I have often
thought that Chinese poets are very limited in their range. They
seem to be deficient in the quality of imagination. China has never
produced a great epic poem. Of course I speak subject to correction,
but I believe I am right in saying that China has never produced a
poet comparable with Homer, Dante, Virgil, or Milton. There has been
no one born with the power of telling a story like Homer. The poets of
China appear to me to be emotional and descriptive, but incapable of
any high flights of imagination. I think that Macaulay says that great
flights of imagination are peculiar to the early periods of a nation’s
civilization, and that story-telling reaches its highest form as an art
before printing has been much in vogue.
Mr. M. F. A. FRASER: I have listened to this lecture with the greatest
interest. The English was particularly pleasing, and I am glad that the
lecturer has broken away from the old custom of seeking rhymes, and
followed the French custom in the translation of these poems. A man
may be an excellent writer and translator, and not be a poet, but to
translate foreign poetry into English considerable literary gifts are
required.
Mr. PAUL KING: All of you who have been lately in China must be struck
with the extraordinary difference between the China described in these
poems and the China which has come into being since the revolution.
Ideas of a very practical nature have now taken possession of the
people. And then, what about modern Chinese poets? Do any of us know
of any? In my intercourse with the Chinese I cannot recall a modern
Chinese who was a poet. It is possible that I may have met one, and
that he concealed his poetic gifts. (Laughter.) Our lecturer tells us,
however, that he knows certain Chinese poets. It would be interesting
to know if they are publishing their poems, and how they would compare
with the work of the older poets in our possession.
Mr. L. Y. CHEN: I should like to join in congratulating Mr. Waley on
his very learned paper and beautiful translations. It is quite true
that there are no epic poems in Chinese literature. This form of poetry
has not been introduced in China, but I differ with your statement,
Sir, that Chinese poetry lacks imagination. (Applause.) I could give
you many instances to the contrary, though not from memory. The last
speaker’s remark that the present China is different from what China is
in Chinese poetry may be true, but I may well retort that the England
as represented in Shakespeare is very different from the England of
to-day. (Laughter and cheers.) And Li T’ai-po lived many hundred years
ago, but Shakespeare lived at a more recent period. Human nature has
two states, the spiritual and the practical. You can combine the two.
If you have the practical it does not necessarily follow that you are
lacking in the spiritual. As for present-day Chinese poets, there are
several famous ones in China.
Since the lecturer has raised the question whether Li T’ai-po or Tu
Fu is the greater poet, I would say that the Chinese of the present
day consider Tu Fu to be the greater. It strikes me as curious that
European people who know something about Chinese poetry should prefer
Li T’ai-po. Perhaps very few people have heard of Tu Fu. Certainly
there is no translation of the most important of Tu Fu’s poems in the
English language. In China every child who has studied poetry knows
something about Tu Fu’s poems. Tu Fu is placed first by the Chinese
because he is the greatest national poet. He expresses national
feelings in a way that can be appreciated by everybody. Li T’ai-po’s
poems deal chiefly with wine and women, love and sensual things, but
Tu Fu’s poems are full of men and women, elderly people and children,
their joy, their anguish, the hardship of the soldier, and things of
that sort. In a word, Tu Fu’s poetry expresses what we ordinary men and
women wish to express and cannot.
Mr. G. WILLOUGHBY-MEADE: One or two observations occur to me in
connection with the translation of this poetry into English. The two
greatest reading publics are the Anglo-American and the Chinese. The
Anglo-American people have produced an enormous amount of poetry which
they do not often quote, and the Chinese have produced an enormous
amount of poetry which, according to experts, they quote a great deal.
Now, at the present moment that peculiar British shyness for quoting
poetry seems to have largely disappeared in consequence of the writings
of soldier poets. These poems have been written under conditions of
great danger, difficulty, and discomfort, and it seems to me that it
would be a very good thing if poetry illustrating the thought of these
men could be placed before the Anglo-American public.
The CHAIRMAN proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the Lecturer, which
was carried by acclamation.
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