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Wang Chen-ho. Rose, Rose, I Love You. Howard Goldblatt, tr. New York. Columbia University Press. 1998. x + 183 pages. $22.95. ISBN 0-231-11202-5.
Rose, Rose, I Love You is a polished and lively translation of a rollicking burlesque novel originally published in 1984 by Wang Chen-ho (1940-90), a talented Taiwanese fiction writer famous for his naturalistic dialogue and sardonic narrative tone. Translator Howard Goldblatt's informative preface SUccinctly traces the novel's cultural and linguistic background, which is rich in puns and malapropisms emerging from the clash of languages in 1960s Taiwan: Taiwanese, Mandarin (often Hakka-accented), Japanese, and English. Goldblatt's afterword includes a translation of the wildly popular and schmaltzy Mandarin song from which the novel draws its title; his outline of this song's history since 1937 helps sensitize the reader to the song's mirth-provoking reverberations throughout the work itself, especially its conclusion. For enhanced enjoyment of these comic reverberations, readers who are unfamiliar with the song should read through its lyrics...