332
dignity we do not always allot to the desperate.
That was the overall picture. There are nevertheless certain episodes which remind one that the human spirit will somehow carve out sufficient room (call it leisure, if you like) for humour, irony, even your everyday joie de vivre. On another score, one recalls the great masters of tragedy, and realizes they were right, after all, when they said tragedy was specific, particular, personal. The most intense experiences included here seem to lose themselves in their own intensities in spite of, or irrespective of, the general national calamity. There is one moving instance where a mother writes to her son, expressing much grief at their separation, and ends by a magnanimous desire to expand that intense love outwards to include the nation, possibly the universe. In China, transcendence comes in the most unexpected quarters never with reference to orthodox spirituality. All religions, all things vaguely religious, go by the name of superstitions and are rejected. Yet again and again "the family" inspires the most moving religious experiences, although the Chinese themselves would not recognise them as religious.
This is a good translation in that it is sufficiently clear on the one hand, while on the other it retains the necessary awkwardness which reminds one that this is a translation, after all. The word "contradiction", for instance, after a few appearances, begins to make one realize it is much more than a feature of argument, of logic; it amounts to being a medley of unresolved feelings, of emotional confusion with which the writer could not come to terms, could not express.
The footnotes are useful. They explain cross-references that the reader may not be aware of, as well as subtleties that evade translation. This is a handsome book, with a number of powerful woodcuts.
LOUISE HO
332
dignity we do not always allot to the desperate.
That was the overall picture. There are nevertheless certain episodes which remind one that the human spirit will somehow carve out sufficient room (call it leisure, if you like) for humour, irony, even your everyday joie de vivre. On another score, one recalls the great masters of tragedy, and realizes they were right, after all, when they said tragedy was specific, particular, personal. The most intense experiences included here seem to lose them- selves in their own intensities in spite of, or irrespective of, the general national calamity. There is one moving instance where a mother writes to her son, expressing much grief at their separa- tion, and ends by a magnanimous desire to expand that intense love outwards to include the nation, possibly the universe. In China, transcendence comes in the most unexpected quaters never with reference to orthodox spirituality. All religions, all things vaguely religious, go by the name of superstitions and are rejected. Yet again and again "the family" inspires the most mov- ing religious experiences, although the Chinese themselves would not recognise them as religious.
This is a good translation in that it is sufficiently clear on the one hand, while on the other it retains the necessary awkwardness which reminds one that this is a translation, after all. The word "contradiction", for instance, after a few appearances, begins to make one realize it is much more than a feature of argument, of logic; it amounts to being a medley of unresolved feelings, of emo- tional confusion with which the writer could not come to terms, could not express.
The footnotes are useful. They explain cross-references that the reader may not be aware of, as well as subtleties that evade transla- tion. This is a handsome book, with a number of powerful wood- cuts.
LOUISE HO
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