Li Hongqi's "Lucky Bastard"
Just bought Li Hongqi's novel "Lucky Bastard" (李红旗 《幸运儿》). It was the back cover blurbs that caught my eye: high praise from Han Dong and Zhu Wen; few first-time Chinese authors can ask for better that that.
In Zhu Wen's amusing preface to the book, he admits that although he has been "lazy" about writing lately, he was pleased to write a few paragraphs on behalf of Li Hongqi, a young poet-novelist who first came to Zhu Wen's attention with his poem "Friends".
I liked "Friends" so much that I translated it on the spot:
Poem: Friends
Poet: Li Hongqi
In the autumn of 1994,
many people were engaged
in the study of sexual intercourse.
That's about the time I learned it.
Naturally, prior to that autumn
there were a good many people
who'd been having intercourse for years,
and of course a whole lot more
who hadn't mastered it,
even by the autumn of 1994.
If all those interested alumni
of the sexual intercourse
circa autumn 1994
could only find some way
to re-establish contact
with one another,
who knows...
everyone might just end up
making a friend.
(Click "more" to see the original poem in Chinese)
By Cindy Carter, June 24, 7:28a.m.