In the Translation Certificate Program, students are asked to deeply consider various translation issues. When translating ancient Buddhist texts, the issue of modernization comes into play. The current standard is to translate into modern English. Is something lost in the modernization? What is gained? We took a radical approach to this and had students translate Shakespeare into modern English, modern Chinese, and even GIFs! The true timelessness of Shakespeare becomes apparent.

Peter Tran BA’2

Sonnet #29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

(All GIFs are from giphy.com. We do not claim any ownership over the GIFs.)

Justin Lee TC’22
Sonnet #64 (Modernized English)
When I have seen the terrible hand of Time tarnish
The price of old age that follows being proudly rich;
Sometimes, when I see tall towers toppled,
And brass an eternal slave to death;
When I see the hungry ocean acquire
Dominance over the kingdom on the shore,
And solid land triumphing over open, watery ocean,
Loss increased by possession, and possession by loss;
When I see such interchanging conditions,
Or the state itself defeated to decay;
Destruction has taught me like so to contemplate,
Time will come and steal my love away.
This thought is like death, which cannot choose
But only cry to have what it will eventually lose.

Lan Huang TC’22
When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced
the rich proud cost of outworn buried age;
我曾見時間的巨手輕易摧毀了昔日榮華，
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
也曾見高塔轟然倒塌，
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;
連青銅也無法避免無常的吞噬；
When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
我曾見洶湧的大海，
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
侵佔了海岸的領土，
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
一時土地又填平海洋，
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;
此消彼長；
When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded to decay;
當我見到領土如此流轉變遷，
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate，
殘敗光景教我不禁深思，
That Time will come and take my love away.
時光亦將帶走吾愛，
This thought is as a death which cannot choose
此念如死亡不可避免，
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.
對失去的恐懼令我淚沾衣袖。

Jiahui Hung TC’22

Bonus GIF Video of a Poem By Emily Dickinson!