Between Loss and Gain: Translating the Taiwanese Praise Ballads on the Pescadores into English

Abstract

The “praise ballad” is a specific type of local folk literature handed down from generation to generation in traditional agricultural and fishing societies by means of chanting in the local vernacular dialect. It was composed and sung to express the villagers’ emotions, thoughts and feelings. The content of the praise ballads sung on the Pescadores is largely and tightly connected to the hardship of fishing life because the Pescadores are surrounded by the salt waters and savaged by the Northeast monsoons. When the author of a praise ballad narrates his/her personal feeling or mood towards a particular living condition, he/she appeals to an intense emotion regarding the daunting adversity of fishing on the open seas, which is called “begging the sea” in the local Taiwanese dialect. Although praise ballads play a decisive role in the promotion of Penghu cultural tourism, the unique folk chansons are facing a vital predicament, namely, they are being forgotten by the people of our time and have been gradually sinking into absolute oblivion. Based on Hung Min-Tsung’s authoritative work on and collection of local Penghu praise ballads, the research seeks to examine the “loss” and “gain” in the English translations of some representative local praise ballads collected in Hung’s book. Can the original message and flavor of a praise ballad be fully retained in a Taiwanese-English translation via the mediation of the Chinese language? Can a Taiwanese-Chinese-English translational grand tour manage to faithfully render the original beauty, charm and humor of the Pescadorean songs of the old times? What can be regained and what are lost in the English translation? These are the questions the paper endeavors to investigate.