From Scots to Mandarin: The Translation and Reception of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Poetry in China

Abstract

Drawing partly on paratexts and an interview, this article discusses the translation into Chinese of one of Scotland’s most prominent cultural figures of the past century, Hugh MacDiarmid, the pseudonym of Christopher Murray Grieve (1892-1978). The article assesses the translation of a selection of his poems by three Chinese scholars: Wang Zuoliang, Zhang Jian, and Huang Canran. The article highlights the linguistic challenges that MacDiarmid’s poetry in dense literary Scots poses for translators in general, and Chinese translators in particular. Translators also need to address the many specific allusions to Scottish material culture and the poet’s occasional resort to racist caricature. The translation of MacDiarmid’s poetry is inseparable from a growing scholarly recognition in China that the ‘Scottish’ literary tradition is distinct from the ‘British’ one that still dominates Chinese university curricula. The article, therefore, also surveys the reception of MacDiarmid’s poetry in China.