This essay demonstrates that early sinologists tended to view collections of Chinese poetry as mere social documents, and thus emphasized the poems as sources of information (for example, regarding Chinese attitudes toward filial piety), rather than as works having intrinsic aesthetic and poetic value; this view of Chinese poetry or course influenced the styles of translation. Representative of early (18th-20th century) Western translators are the three French translators-writers, Marquis d’Hervey Saint-Denys (1832-1892), Judith Gautier (1845-1917) and Louis Bouilhet (1822-1869). The first translator, Marquis d’Hervey-Saint-Denys (in his Poesies de l’epoque des Thang, 1862) is presented as an influential example of the extreme type of translator who mechanically gets the meaning, but neglects the unique spirit and stylistics of the work being translated. Judith Gautier (Livre de Jade, 1867) is discussed as an example of a translator who goes in the other direction—one who emphasizes the lyrical quality of Chinese poems (and translates them as “poemes en prose”). The last, Bouilhet (Dernieres Chansons), attempted to adapt Chinese verse forms when writing poetry in French, and also indulged in fanciful etymology a la Pound-Fenellosa. More recent, 20th century, translators such as Waley and Pound showed genuine interest in Chinese poetry qua poetry, and have taken care to render both content and form. It is suggested that poets are perhaps better translators than professional sinologists.

Jesuits, influence, poetry, poetics, translation, Marquis d’Hervey Saint-Denys, sinologist, Judith Gautier, French poetry, Louis Bouithet