When I first wrote about the Copper Canyon anthology Push Open the Window, I said, “My only quibble with the book so far is that, while everything is printed with Chinese and English en face, for some reason the Chinese characters of none of the poets’ names made it into the book.” Co-translation editor Sylvia Lin has worked to address this, writing in a recent post to the Modern Chinese Literature & Culture email list:
List members may be interested in a new bilingual anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry, Push Open the Window, the third volume in a larger project of bilingual anthologies of contemporary poetry funded by the NEA. The poems were selected by the Chinese editor, Qingping Wang, with Sylvia Li-chun Lin and Howard Goldblatt as translation editors.
Despite our objections, the publisher, Copper Canyon Press, chose not to include the poets’ names in Chinese. We are making them available here; feel free to share the list with other users of the anthology.
Shi Zhi 食指
Mang Ke 芒克
Shu Ting 舒婷
Yu Jian 于坚
Zhai Yongming 翟永明
Wang Xiaoni 王小妮
Sun Wenbo 孙文波
Gu Cheng 顾城
Bai Hua 柏桦
Zhang Shuguang 张曙光
Wang Jiaxin 王家新
Song Lin 宋琳
Xiao Kaiyu 肖开愚
Han Dong 韩东
Chen Dongdong 陈东东
Zhang Zao 张枣
Qing Ping 清平
Sen Zi 森子
Huang Canran 黄灿然
Xi Chuan 西川
Huang Fan 黄梵
Cai Tianxin 蔡天新
Zang Di 臧棣
Hai Zi 海子
Ye Hui 叶辉
Ma Yongbo 马永波
Shu Cai 树才
Yi Sha 伊沙
Yu Nu 余怒
Ge Mai 戈麦
Lan Lan 蓝蓝
Xi Du 西渡
Yang Jian 杨键
Sang Ke 桑克
Chen Xianfa 陈先发
Lin Mu 林木
Zhou Zan 周瓒
Zhu Zhu 朱朱
Jiang Tao 姜涛
Yan Wo 燕窝
Jiang Hao 蒋浩
Ma Hua 马骅
Han Bo 韩博
Leng Shuang 冷霜
Duo Yu 朵渔
Hu Xudong 胡续冬
Qin Xiaoyu 秦晓宇
Shen Muqin 沈木槿*
Wang Ao 王敖
* The book prints this name as Shen Mujin; the character can be pronounced either jǐn or qín.
I note that Yang Lian’s name is not on that list: I did know that the editors didn’t ask for any of my translations to be included in this anthology. I wonder what their thinking was in leaving his work out?
Indeed, Yang Lian’s name is not on that list. Nor, if you notice, are any other poets who live in exile or have taken foreign citizenship, as far as I know (Huang Canran lives in Hongkong, I believe, and Wang Ao in Connecticut, but that’s not exile; while Gu Cheng lived in exile, I suppose his death makes him safe). The fact that the anthology was produced with funds not only from the US government but from the PRC as well may have something to do with the editors’ thinking on this issue.
Another related consideration may have been availability of these poets’ work in English. Gu Cheng–again, a noteworthy exception–is readily available, but the only others to have books in English translation are Shu Ting and Yi Sha, both of which are pretty hard to find for American poetry readers. And while we now have books of Yu Jian, Hai Zi, and Zhai Yongming published in English translation, with Han Dong and Shi Zhi and Ouyang Jianghe (also not on the list) and of course Xi Chuan forthcoming, these are books that were all in development at the same time as Push Open the Window.
At any rate, despite my reservations or mixed feelings about anthologies (as I stated at http://xichuanpoetry.com/?p=187), this is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to the anthology you’ve edited, Brian, Jade Ladder.
Also, Song Lin lives in France. The book refers to him as “she,” but he’s a he.