Issue 1 of the new journal Seedings is now out, featuring a great collection of work by some of English’s best poets: Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Nathaniel Tarn, Rosmarie Waldrop, Will Alexander… and translators: Keith Waldrop (Paul Verlaine), Cole Swensen (Jaime Montestrela), Johannes Göransson (Sara Tuss Efrik)…
Worth mention on this blog are the three new translations by Matt Turner of prose poems by Lu Xun 魯迅. From “Waking” 一覺:
Planes on a mission to drop bombs, like the start of class at school every morning, fly over Beijing. Everytime I hear the sound of their parts pound the air I repeatedly feel a light tension, as though witnessing a “death” raid. But at the same time intensely feeling the “birth” of existence.
飛機負了擲下炸彈的使命，像學校的上課似的，每日上午在北京城上飛行。每聽得機件搏擊空氣的聲音，我常覺到一種輕微的緊張，宛然目睹了「死」的襲來，但同時也深切地感著「生」的存在。隱約聽到一二爆發聲以後，飛機嗡嗡地叫著，冉冉地飛去了。也許有人死傷了罷，然而天下卻似乎更顯得太平。窗外的白楊的嫩葉，在日光下發烏金光。
Click the image above to access the issue.
