MCLC: 300 Modern Chinese Poems

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: 300 Modern Chinese Poems
***********************************************************

Source: Martin Winter's blog (9/1/12): http://erguotou.wordpress.com or
http://blog.sina.com.cn/dujuan9999

300 Modern Chinese Poems (Chinese-English) 汉英对照版《中国新诗300首》

Zhao Siyun 赵思运 <http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhaosiyun>, who was introduced on
this list by Michael Day a while ago, has a list of authors and poems
<http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_54b574bb0102e0s7.html> on his Blog
<http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhaosiyun>, for a Chinese-English anthology of
over 300 modern Chinese poems 中国新诗300首. Compiled by an institution
called 
International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, IPTRC
<http://blog.sina.com.cn/iptrc1995>. Very welcoming, diverse and
expansive. Including writers from Taiwan, and many young voices. Liao Yiwu
廖亦武 is included, though not with his most representative work, probably.
Lü Yuan 绿原 is there, he did a Chinese-German anthology, introducing Yu
Jian 于坚 in 1990, rather early. Bei Dao 北岛 was included in there, but
with 
a comparatively insignificant poem. He is better represented in this new
effort, although I miss the mosquito. It’s very hard to include one or two
significant poems from an author who is obviously politically significant.

Interesting to compare this with other anthologies, in Chinese and other
languages. Zhongguo Xin Shi 中国新诗 (Fudan UP 2000), ed. Zhang Xinying 张新
颖, 
has two poems by Zhou Zuoren 周作人, one against unnecessary water dams and
a 
drinking song, both very impressive. Zhou Zuoren has not made it onto the
IPTRC list. Of course it’s rather easy to come up with some of your
favorites who are not represented, compared to shifting through many
thousand poems and coming up with such a list. Huang Xiang 黄翔 is included,
despite his dissident status, but he is already in Zhongguo Xin Shi 中国新
诗. 
As usual, I am looking at newer people first, although I only recognize
two from those born in 1970 or later. Zhou Yunpeng 周云蓬 is there, the
blind 
folk singer. But not Cui Jian 崔健. Woeser 唯色 is there, which is great!
But 
in general there are hardly any poets from minority nations in China.

Ha Jin 哈金 is missing, but he writes in English. Gao Xingjian 高行健 does
not 
appear, but is mostly known for fiction and drama. So who else hasn’t made
it? Yang Ze 楊澤、Hsiang Yang 向陽、Hung Hung 鴻鴻、Mai Mang 麦芒 (Huang
Yibing 黄亦兵), 
who sometimes writes in English and teaches at Connecticut (there is
another Mai Mang 麦芒 in China, known for one-liners).On with the non-list:
Sun Wenbo 孙文波、Li Nan 李南、Yang Jian 杨键、Zhu Wen 朱文、Yin Lichuan 尹丽
川、Zheng 
Xiaoqiong 郑小琼、Ma Lan 马兰、Hong Ying 虹影、Pang Pei 庞培、Che Qianzi 车前
子、Yan Jun 顏峻
. I would have included Yan Jun’s 反对 Against All Organized Deception
<http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/yanjun.htm> (translated by Maghiel van
Crevel) and Ma Lan’s 事故和理由 The accident and the reason
<http://luofulin.blogspot.co.at/2009/03/poetry-by-ma-lan-accident-and-reaso
n.html>, maybe even combined with 仿佛 As If. And How We Kill a Glove 我们如
何杀一只
手套, if it wouldn’t be too long. Hong Ying’s 饥饿 Hunger, also written
abroad. And one of Zheng Xiaoqiong’s 郑小琼
<http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1168473392> new female migrant worker’s
portraits.

Then there would be others. Not compatible, maybe. 吳音寧 Wu Yinning and Li
Ch’in’an 李勤岸 are very much from Taiwan. Wu Yinning 吳音寧 is more
well-known 
for her reportages. The poems contain many fascinating local expressions,
hard to translate. I’ve only read two poems by Li Ch’in’an 李勤岸, in a
three-volume anthology of about 100 years of poetry in Taiwan. One of
these two poems is a personal favorite, 解嚴以後 – 一九八七年七月十五日臺灣解
嚴紀念 After 
Martial Law Was Lifted – In Commemoration of Lifting Martial Law in Taiwan
on July 15th, 1987.

I have been reading a great anthology of Lithuanian poetry in the last few
days. And there are beautiful anthologies of recent Chinese poetry in
English, like the online treasure in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue
<http://thedrunkenboat.com/summer06.html> of thedrunkenboat.com, edited by
Inara Cedrins, or the Atlanta Review China issue. Without any Chinese
characters, unfortunately. The Drunken Boat collection is very diverse,
including minority people in China, extra sections on Hong Kong, Macau and
Singapore, as well as very much else from abroad. Even half of the
non-minority nation poets in China who are in The Drunken Boat are not in
the IPTRC 300. There is a good volume in English of Che Qianzi’s 车前子
poems 
and some of his friends, with a note in the back that the Chinese text can
be found in some university library. Oh well. Anyway, there is not enough
modernity, not enough experiment in Chinese literature in general,
especially in China. So it would be great to include some people like Che
Qianzi 车前子. There is also not enough performance, that’s where Yan Jun 颜
峻 
and other sound and music stuff would come in.

The Lithuanian anthology mentioned above is from Poetry Salzburg Press
<http://www.poetrysalzburg.com/>. I love the long hallucinating love poem
Bird in Freedom by Vytautas Bložė, written while imprisoned and “treated”
in a Soviet psychiatric hospital. And the song-like evocations of Vilnius’
old city and the empty Jewish ghetto by Judita Vaičiūnaitė. The
translations of these poems and many others by Laima Sruoginis are
hauntingly beautiful. Much of the identity of the Baltic countries is
built on songs, a great foundation for poetry.