Jorge L. Borges' Creative Translations of Chinese Texts: The Case of Chuang Tzu's Butterfly Dream

Introduction

In addition to being a writer, Borges (1899-1986) was a translator of other writers and collaborated in translations of his own work (Kristal, 2002; Willson, 2004, ch. 3). From 1937 onwards he translated several short fragments of Chinese texts. One of the earliest such translations is also his most famous one of a Chinese fragment: Chuang Tzu¹ dreaming of the butterfly. Borges translates only part of the relevant paragraph. In making this translation, Borges, who did not know Chinese, consulted translations into Western languages. Borges’ rendition of Chuang Tzu’s dream (henceforth CTD) is representative of his translation style, as it is based on creative rewriting. The interdependence between creativity and translation is still being discussed to this day (Grass, 2023; Hugueny-Léger, 2024; Malmkjær, 2020).

There are some differences between the many times Borges reported his translation of CTD, as was noted especially by Kristal (2002, ch. 2). The critical literature has not explained why Borges introduced changes between his versions. In connection with these points, two objectives of this article are to ascertain how many CTD versions Borges published and how these compare with each other. To achieve these objectives, we will establish the chronology, identify the sources (i.e. the direct translations from Chinese that Borges consulted) and explain the reasons behind the changes.

Three other goals are pursued here. First, we will argue that, even if they appeared in collaboratively edited anthologies, the translations in question are due solely to Borges. Critics tend to agree with this but they have not justified their decision. To clarify this point, we will uncover a couple of early translations of CTD (signed only by Borges and so far neglected), as well as considering Borges’ career as a commentator on Chinese literature.

Second, we will analyze how Borges’ CTD translations have been evaluated by different scholars. Their studies come from the fields of literary criticism or sinology; they also bring into play either direct translations from Chinese or retranslations (which may not be literal) of Borges’ versions. The critical approaches in question take different positions on the theory of translation and even on the histories of Chinese literature and philosophy. In light of our analysis of various details not explored so far, we will be in a position to reach a better understanding of the critical debate, without neglecting the characterization of the translations in question.

Finally, we will briefly discuss the retranslations of Borges’ CTD from Spanish into third languages, which causes their coexistence with translations made directly from Chinese. Sánchez (2023) analyzed retranslations of Borges’ texts from Spanish into third languages; here we extend this approach to the case where Borges’ texts are themselves retranslations (of a Chinese source text).

All in all, our main task will be to analyze Borges’ retranslations into Spanish of CTD versions done in other major Western languages. In dealing with the degree of literality versus creativity of Borges’ renditions, this article owes much to translation studies, with their emphasis on how translating a text transforms its meaning. We extend earlier studies (especially Kristal’s) of Borges’ CTD translations. For simplicity, we shall limit ourselves to comparative analyses of source and target texts, as remains common in studies of Borges’ other creative translations (Leone Anderson, 2024). The comparison here is between Borges’ texts (in Spanish and translated literally into English) and English versions (in one case, retranslated from German) of the Chinese source text. Our approach is quite transparent in that the reader can alter the texts being compared as she sees fit, and then adjust the conclusions accordingly. Although we will touch on several dimensions of creative translation, an in-depth analysis is left for future research. For instance, here we will compare Borges’ translations in terms of syntax and illustrate his literary aims, but we will stop short of a subtantial study of the fluidity of discourse and apparent goals (including the translations’ suitability to the target audience).

The structure of this paper is as follows. We start by analyzing how Borges came to translate CTD. We then look at the sources consulted by Borges and compare his CTD translations. Next, we evaluate the critical debate raised by Borges’ translations. Before concluding, we discuss the retranslations of these into third languages.