Mindy Zhang on Chinese Poetry
http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/festival/blog/23390/Translating-Chinese-Poetry
A blog post by Mindy Zhang on the Poetry International Rotterdam website, in which discusses her changes to "routine strategies in translation practice."
While Ezra Pound and other pioneer poet-translators were able to “make it new” by transforming the old Chinese formal poetry into free verse, what can we do as contemporaries of the Chinese New Poetry which is already free verse? To make new something already supposedly new is a challenge.
Comments
Mindy,
I was at a reading by Tony Barnstone and his father Willis a few weeks ago. It was extraordinary to see the way they tag-teamed like WWF wrestlers throughout the evening. Afterwards we went over to a professor's house here and got more of a chance to talk.
I told Tony about my Fulbright year teaching in Xi'an, where I went with my family, and how my graduate seminar had them finding and translating (with my assistance), young, diverse, Chinese poets for a planned anthology. Tony suggested I contact you about how to proceed.
Briefly, I'm a professor in California, I've published two books of my own, "Strong-Armed Angels" and "Every Seed of the Pomegranate" (The later is is voices--1/2 US 1/2 Iraqi--concerning to war in Iraq). I've also co-translated Adnan Al-Sayegh's poems from Arabic into English, in a book called "Bombs Have Not Breakfasted Yet."
My Chinese graduate students have been lead by a Chinese translation professor, who continues to be in touch with them and manage the library we accumulated (aided by the local Xi'an poet Yisha, who's been a great help). My vision is a collection of younger poets from different ethnic groups: Dai, Han, Mongolian, Uyghur, Tibetan, etc. and emphasizing more women and minorities. I'm thinking it will consist of a photo of each poet, a brief bio, and 3-5 poems. Right now I'm calling it "China Fragments."
My question is, whom should I contact about publishing this anthology? Where should I publish selections from it? Who do you know who might want to work further with me? (The students are willing, but can only go so far afield, and no one translates from Tibetan or Uyghur). Do you have any interest in assisting me? I would say we have about 40 poems translated that work well in English.
I know you're busy, and as I've been reading your poetry and translations online I've come to admire your dedication to the craft. Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Xie xie, David Allen Sullivan
David Allen Sullivan, December 21, 2014, 2:09a.m.
I didn't find Mindy's blogpost, but I did find this page which features pix and English-language bios of some 40 Chinese poets:
http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/country/item/14/China
Bruce, December 21, 2014, 4:19a.m.
Also, David, Mindy isn't actually on this site, we just linked to her blogpost. She won't see your comment, unfortunately...
Eric Abrahamsen, December 21, 2014, 4:36a.m.