As part of the “Birds of Metal in Flight” event, Columbia University hosted a panel discussion with Bei Dao 北岛, Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河, Xi Chuan 西川, Zhai Yongming 翟永明, Zhou Zan 周瓒, and Xu Bing 徐冰, as moderated by Lydia Liu 刘禾 and John Rajchman and introduced by Eugenia Lean, titled “Sound and Image: Chinese Poets in Conversation with Artist Xu Bing.” Click the image above for more information & photos, or here to stream the discussion via iTunes.
Category Archives: Pictures
Video of Birds of Metal in Flight Readings
Readings by Marilyn Nelson, Bei Dao 北岛, Afaa Weaver, Zhai Yongming 翟永明, Pierre Joris, Xi Chuan 西川, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Zhou Zan 周瓒, Charles Bernstein, and Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河, followed by remarks from Xu Bing 徐冰, introduced by Lydia Liu 刘禾.
For Xi Chuan reading my translation of “Bloom” 开花, jump to 49:21.
For pictures and more information on the reading, click here. For recordings of the readings, visit PennSound.
Xi Chuan at Middlebury College
Poetry Reading by Xi Chuan
Monday, March 11, 7:00-8:00 PM
Axinn Center 229, Middlebury College
“Xi Chuan’s surprising poems reach into tight corners of mind and matter, impersonal but intimate, new to be heard but also oddly familiar. An impressive voice—bold and calm”— Gary Snyder.
Xi Chuan, one of the most influential of contemporary Chinese poets, will read in Chinese; Lucas Klein (Middlebury class of 2000) of the City University of Hong Kong will read his English translations from Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems (New Directions, 2012). The reading will be followed by discussion and question and answer in English with the poet and his translator. Open to the public.
Sponsored by the Department of Chinese, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Program in East Asian Studies, and the John D. Berninghuasen Professorship in Chinese.
Jidi Majia at Chinese Literature Today
Jidi Majia 吉狄马加, translated by Denis Mair:
Voice of the Bimo
—Dedicated to a Nuosu ritualist
When you hear it
It seems above all illusion
Like a faint wisp of bluish smoke
Why just now are the ranged mountains
Felt to be filled with a timeless stillness?
Whose voice drifts between men and ghosts?
It seems to have left the body
Yet between reality and nothingness
In tones both human and divine it utters
A praise song for life and death
When it invokes sun, stars, rivers, and ancient heroes
When it summons deities and surreal powers
Departed beings commence their resurrection!
毕摩的声音
—献给彝人中的祭司
你听见它的时候
它就在梦幻之上
如同一缕淡淡的青烟
为什么群山在这样的时候
才充满着永恒的寂静
这是谁的声音？它漂浮在人鬼之间
似乎已经远离了人的躯体
然而它却在真实与虚无中
同时用人和神的口说出了
生命与死亡的赞歌
当它呼喊太阳、星辰、河流和英雄的祖先
召唤神灵与超现实的力量
死去的生命便开始了复活！
Xi Chuan at Longhouse
Over at A Longhouse Birdhouse, Bob Arnold has typed up Xi Chuan’s “Somedbody” 某人 and the first stanza of “What the Tang Did Not Have” 唐朝所没有的 as they appear in my translations in Notes on the Mosquito. Take a look!
Gary Snyder in Hongkong
Gary Snyder with Lucas Klein in Hongkong
Gary Snyder Poetry Reading
with Guqin 古琴 performance by Yao Gongbai 姚公白
Lecture Theatre 1, Cheng Yu Tung 鄭裕彤 Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jade Ladder Launch in London
This happened yesterday, the launch of the new anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry, Jade Ladder, in London at the International Book Fair.
Depicted left to right: Xi Chuan, W N Herbert, Yang Lian 杨炼, and Brian Holton; photo by Ou Ning 欧宁.
Officially Released!
Paper / Back
I got back last night from New Zealand, where I’d been for the Short Takes on Long Poems conference (which I’ll go into detail about later), to find this nice gift sent from New Directions:
Click the pic for ordering information.
Translator Page Online at New Directions Website
In addition to the webpage for Notes on the Mosquito being finally up, New Directions has also uploaded my translator’s page, with brief bio & picture (yep, that’s me), and of course a link to the main Notes on the Mosquito page. A blurb at the top of the page promoting other New Directions authors changes with each re-load, but for the moment, I can pretend “A keenly discriminating literary mind”–a quip from the New York Times Book Review on George Steiner–is about me.