LA Review Reviews Ye Mimi

daysgobyTim Lantz reviews His Days Go By the Way Her Years by Ye Mimi 葉覓覓, as translated by Steve Bradbury (Anomalous Press, 2013) at the LA Review:

The chapbook was short-listed for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award, and for good reason. Steve Bradbury does a spectacular job Englishing Ye’s rousing syntax and rhythm—for example, from “The More Car the More Far”:

One day they drag a railroad track over for her, teach her how to belch black smoke from her fontanelles.

So then she cars up. Facing the track, facing the eaves.

I am precise. I am naughty. I am gravity.

For those who can read Chinese and English, part of the fun of the book is going back and forth between the languages to see how the poems work in both and how one has become the other (and thus an argument for including the original language in other translated works). In both languages, His Days Go By the Way Her Years is a beautifully weird book.

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Johannes Göransson on Aase Berg / Ye Mimi / Tomas Tranströmer / Translation Studies

5_Ye_Mimi_photoOver at Montevidayo, Johannes Göransson has posted “Exploded Tranströmer: On Ye Mimi and Translation.” A hyperopticon of connections, it links Taiwanese poet Ye Mimi 葉覓覓 to Nobel lit. prizewinner Tomas Tranströmer via what Swedish poet Aase Berg’s reading:

A few months ago, after she came back from the Hong Kong poetry festival, Aase Berg wrote to me that she had come across an amazing poet: Ye Mimi. (Apparently YM appeared with a very impressive guitar player as well.)

That is funny because when I first read Ye Mimi what came to my mind was a somewhat controversial article Aase wrote in Expressen after Tomas Tranströmer won the Nobel Prize the other year … Ye Mimi’s poems are wonderful in that way: as “banality and surprising intelligence in unexpected union.” In fact they read a little like Tranströmer poems in which the metaphors flip out, go off in tangents. And a Tranströmer poem in which the tenor of the metaphor is not privileged – not over the vehicle, not over the “banal” everyday stuff (pink hoodies, telephone booths etc).

From there, he indicates a critique of Translation Studies as it’s come to be known under the direction of Lawrence Venuti, which he says “quarantines the work in translation: we never have the work in translation.”

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Ye Mimi Chapbook Translated by Steve Bradbury

daysgoby

New from Anomalous Press:

His Days Go By the Way Her Years is a collection of Steve Bradbury’s best translations of poetry by Taiwanese poet and filmmaker Ye Mimi 葉覓覓. Mimi’s poetry blends a fascination with dreams with a playful approach to language and sensitivity to sound.  In his translations, Bradbury has crafted English poems that sing in their new language and deftly play with its possibilities. This book was a finalist in the Anomalous Press Experimental Translation Chapbook Contest, judged by Christian Hawkey.

For ordering information, click the image above.

International Poetry Nights Hong Kong Poetry Recitation & Closing Ceremony

Opening Ceremony and Poetry Recitation, Sunday 24 November, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. HKICC

Tim Lilburn (Canada),  Ye Mimi 葉覓覓 (Taiwan), Conchitina Cruz (The Philippines)

Performances: Filipino Band with Dodo Valiente

 

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. HKICC

Menna Elfyn (Wales), Natalia Chan 洛楓 (Hong Kong), Olvido García Valdés (Spain)

Performances: Flamenco by Ingrid Sera-Gillet

Poetry & Globalization: Opponents or Partners? International Poetry Nights Hong Kong 2013 Panel

Poetry & Globalization: Opponents or Partners?

Moderator: Prof. Lucas Klein
Thurs, 21 November 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
Venue: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

Aase Berg (Sweden), Conchitina Cruz (The Philippines), Jeffrey Yang (USA), Tomasz Różycki (Poland), Un Sio San 袁紹珊 (Macau), Ye Mimi 葉覓覓 (Taiwan)

Islands or Continents

Photo: 2013年香港國際詩歌節出版詩集。赞~Poems by Adonis (Syria), Aase Berg (Sweden), Conchitina Cruz (The Philippines), Menna Elfyn (Wales), Lee Seong-bok (South Korea), Tim Lilburn (Canada), Zeyar Lynn (Burma), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), Peter Minter (Australia), Tomasz Różycki (Poland), Olvido García Valdés (Spain), Jeffrey Yang (USA), Raúl Zurita (Chile), Natalia Chan 洛楓 (Hong Kong), Han Dong 韓東 (mainland China), Lan Lan 藍藍 (mainland China), Un Sio San 袁紹珊 (Macau), and Ye Mimi 葉覓覓 (Taiwan), with translations into English and/or Chinese.
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International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong 2013

21 – 24 November, 2013

Featuring: Adonis (Syria), Aase Berg (Sweden), Conchitina Cruz (The Philippines), Menna Elfyn (Wales), Lee Seong-bok (South Korea), Tim Lilburn (Canada), Zeyar Lynn (Burma), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), Peter Minter (Australia), Tomasz Różycki (Poland), Olvido García Valdés (Spain), Jeffrey Yang (USA), Raúl Zurita (Chile), Natalia Chan 洛楓 (Hong Kong), Han Dong 韓東 (mainland China), Lan Lan 藍藍 (mainland China), Un Sio San 袁紹珊 (Macau), and Ye Mimi 葉覓覓 (Taiwan)

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