Galleries and Translations > Models of Masterpieces > Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" 孫過庭 《書譜》之臨習與英譯
Modelling and English Translation of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy"
(Part II)
by Kwan Sheung Vincent POON (潘君尚)
Oct. 1, 2017
Published on www.vincentpoon.com, Toronto
A. Modelling (by KS Vincent POON)
A model of Sun Guoting's "A Narrative on Calligraphy" (Part I)
臨孫過庭《書譜》 (第一部份)
35 X 137cm (11)
Click to Enlarge. In reserve, not available in Shop.
B. Historical Information
Please see Part I
Readers are strongly encouraged to read the blue numerical footnotes below to gain a better understanding of the original Chinese text and to review some major errors in the translations made by others.
English Translation
Original Chinese Text
At the age of fifteen (17), I began to pay a great deal of attention to the practicing of the art of calligraphy.
32.余志學之年，留心翰墨。
33.味鍾張之餘烈，挹羲獻之前規，極慮專精，時逾二紀。
Although I have not been completely loyal to the techniques that can grant one the ability to write outstanding calligraphy (入木, 21) (this should be read as a self-effacing statement by Sun Guoting), I nonetheless kept my unintermitted determination in practicing the art of calligraphy throughout the years.
34.有乖入木之術，無間臨池之志。
FOR LINES 35-54,
PLEASE PURCHASE THE REVISED AND ENHANCED EDITION WITH FOOTNOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY:
35. 觀夫懸針垂露之異，
36. 奔雷墜石之奇，
37. 鴻飛獸駭之資，
38. 鸞舞蛇驚之態，
39. 絕岸頹峰之勢，
40. 臨危據槁之形。
41. 或重若崩雲，或輕如蟬翼。
42. 導之則泉注，頓之則山安。
43. 纖纖乎似初月之出天崖，落落乎猶眾星之列河漢:
44. 同自然之妙有，非力運之能成。
45. 信可謂智巧兼優，心手雙暢。
46. 翰不虛動，下必有由。
47. 一畫之間，變起伏於峯杪；
48. 一點之內，殊衄挫於毫芒。
49. 況云積其點畫，乃成其字。
50. 曾不傍窺尺櫝，俯習寸陰，
51. 引班超以為辭，援項籍而自滿，
52. 任筆為體，聚墨成形，
53. 心昏擬效之方，手迷揮運之理，
54. 求其妍妙，不亦謬哉!?
FOR FURTHER TRANSLATION, FOOTNOTES, AND
ELABORATIONS
PLEASE SEE :
A Narrative on Calligraphy by Sun Guoting Revised and Enchanced Edition 英譯書譜 增訂版Translated by KS Vincent POON and Kwok Kin POON (Mar. 2019)
ISBN 978-1-989485-10-1
A Narrative on Calligraphy (Shu Pu, 書譜) was written in 687AD by the renowned Tang dynasty calligrapher Sun Guoting (孫過庭) of the seventh century and is regarded to be one of the most important narratives in examining the traditional art of Chinese calligraphy. Yet, there is currently no satisfactory English translation of it. This book provides readers an accurate, annotated, line-by-line, consistent and comprehensive English translation of A Narrative on Calligraphy. Furthermore, various major and fundamental mistakes found in the two previous English translations by Chang & Frankel and De Laurentis are detailed and discussed.
This book is the revised and enhanced version of the previous book and delivers an even more precise translation with 20 titled thematic paragraphs that is based on Dr. Kwok Kin POON’s The Vernacular Chinese Translation of Sun Guoting’s A Narrative on Calligraphy (孫過庭書譜白話對譯. Toronto: The SenSeis, Feb. 2019).
WorldCat/Library: [WorldCat] [Oxford U] [U of T] [Harvard U] [Columbia U] [HKU] [CUHK] [Kyoto U] [National Taiwan U]
END OF PART II (Oct. 1, 2017)