The
essence of humanity is in each of Supreme Master Ching Hai's
poems. No doubt it is Supreme Master Ching Hai's very human,
very honest and simple approach that is the foundation of Her
poetry.
Indeed, Supreme Master Ching Hai writes
Her poems just like people write their diary. She writes whatever
comes to mind, the verse and the thought arriving at the same
moment, without need for polishing. Rhyming and other elements
sometimes are just secondary. Supreme Master Ching Hai's poetry
flows naturally in a very relaxed way, with no hidden meaning,
for there is nothing to conceal. The luc bat (six-eight) verse
form (which consists of multiple pairs of a six-word line followed
by an eight-word line) in Supreme Master Ching Hai's compositions
are as graceful and simple as those of Nguyen Binh, but are
more refined and use more Buddhist terms and imagery.
~Thu Phong, Aulacese poet
(originally in Aulacese,
excerpted from Supreme Master Ching Hai News Magazine #78)
Thanks
to the special arrangement of Master who sent Aulacese translators
to help this year, a new approach to translating Master's poetry
into Chinese has been adopted. It was based on finding and using
Chinese wordscorresponding to Aulacese expressions, thus replacing
the previous method of translating from English text. This has
made it possible to retain as much as possible the original
features of Her poetry. For verses which Master wrote in Her
native language, with such a perfect structure and a truly unique
rhyme scheme, the poems shine with implicit and delicate feelings
characteristic of the way of the East. The richness of vocabulary
and imagery also shows Her mastery of the art of poetry. In
modern time, there are still many outstanding Aulacese poets
who could write poetry in Han and Tang fashions. Master has
recited some of their beautiful works and She Herself is the
very best among those poets. Master's attention to and development
of classical poetry are well respected by professional poets
and poetry lovers alike. With a flexible and skillful use of
contrasting tones and rhymes, Master often uses rhymes of varied
patterns. Previously in the Chinese edition of Wu Tzu Poems,
an introduction to Aulacese rhyme patterns was included. In
Traces of Previous Lives, there are several poems that use the
rhyme pattern of a combination of six and eight syllables. "A
Fareware to My Child" is an example with the rhyme being
embedded in the sixth syllable.
(For example, in the third stanza, the word "mây"
at the end of the six-syllable line rhymes with the sixth syllable
"ngày" in the next line of eight syllables.
In addition, the last syllable of that same line "huong"
rhymes with the last syllable of the next line "duong":
Con về ngàn dặm chân mây
Mênh mông ai biết có ngày hồi hương?
Trong lòng sóng gió đại dương
Hỏi con ốc nhỏ nhớ thương những gì…)
It is lively and rhythmic. In Her early years, Master liked
to use this kind of rhyme patterns.
~
The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association
Chinese TranslationTeam (originally in Chinese)
"The
poetry of any nationality is forged by the thoughts, feelings
and wisdom of its people. It is a language of the soul, an international
language that soul can touch and feel and that can communicate
between different peoples. There is no power whatsoever that
can block the exchange and communication between souls. Reading
and studying poetry can stimulate the growth of wisdom and open
up one's heart.… It is imperative to adopt an in-depth
and meticulous method to translate poetry from one language
to the other. It is also imperative to use fine and well-considered
feelings and wisdom to make choices on vocabulary and style.
What is even more important is to preserve the language style
of the original poem, because this shows respect to its original
author."
~ Princess
Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand
(Princess Sirindhorn has translated Chinese Tang poetry into
Thai.
Her quotes are from website: http://www.thaiwind.net/magazine/especially/017.htm.)
