ABSTRACT
Joseph Rock is undeniably the most important and prolific translator to have taken up the challenge presented by the Naxi texts. This chapter details his achievements in creating a method of thick translation that presents the translational relay from manuscript to oral performance to written translation in more detail than had been previously attempted. Moreover, Rock’s works act as a locus in Naxi studies, pointing back to the translations that came before, and serving as a blueprint for all the Western translations that have followed. Rock’s enduring legacy is the fact that his work engendered further translation. Ezra Pound, one of the twentieth century’s most influential poets, took up the mantle of translating the Naxi texts from Rock, incorporating Naxi rites and even Naxi writing directly into his epic long-form poem, The Cantos. Further, Robert Koc, Joseph Rock’s nephew, translated the most lyrical sections of the Naxi love suicide rite “back” into Rock’s native German, and published them in a book of modern poems. With such attempts, the Naxi books completed their movement from obscure scholarly translation into the realm of mainstream literature.
