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My essay is a historical and cultural interpretation of the Chinese mediaeval epic poem 'Ji Bu Ma Zhen' ( ) within it cultural environment of the Tang period. I expose, succinctly, the various Eurasian communities that contributed to the cultural landscape of the Tang period, especially Indian Buddhism, a polyphonic landscape that shaped the poetic form of Ji Bu as recited by the wandering Buddhist monks or laymen. Following this historical exposition, I then explain my methodical approach of translating the poem, a method which has its roots in mediaeval Europe, and has often been referred to as metaphrasis, calque or literal translation. I call this method the Iconic Approach, an approach both philological and ethical. The next section presents the full poetic English translation of the epic poem. It is accompanied by running footnotes of a linguistic, historical and cultural nature. I conclude the essay with a dialectical discussion of the underlining Confucian and Buddhist values which I believe to be present in the poem, whose composition, hence, should be considered as hybrid; that is, linguistically issued from a combined scriptural and oral culture.
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Paul Mirabile received his Ph.D. in French Mediaeval Linguistics at the University of Vincennes-St Denis, Paris VIII. He has travelled and worked for over 45 years in Africa, Europe, Turkey, India, China and Russia teaching History, languages, linguistics and philology at universities and secondary schools, whilst studying, recording, publishing.
