{"id":1024,"date":"2012-07-08T12:16:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T04:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2012-07-08T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2012-07-08T04:18:08","slug":"sean-obrien-reviews-jade-ladder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1024","title":{"rendered":"Sean O’Brien reviews Jade Ladder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em> has published Sean O’Brien’s review<\/em> of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry<\/em><\/a>, edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc<\/a>, W N Herbert<\/a>, Brian Holton<\/a>, and Qin Xiaoyu\u00a0\u79e6\u6653\u5b87. It’s a fine and enthusiastic take written by an obviously engaged reader conversant with the current goings-on of poetry worldwide. Here’s how it begins:<\/p>\n

The diversity and richness of contemporary Chinese poetry defy description. As Zang Di understatedly puts it in “Cosmo-Sceneriology”, “We seem \/ to have come to a new place”, but the place itself is multiple. In “100 Years of\u00a0Solitude for the New Poetry”, the same poet suggests that poetry “has dismissed language” and finds that “yes, for an instant, it was almost not written by you”. To the reader coming newly to the subject, or with the competing translatorial templates of Ezra Pound and Arthur Waley in mind, these are exciting declarations, even as, or maybe because, they resist confident analysis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

O’Brien also singles out Xi Chuan for mention, with an interesting observation that dovetails with some of what he writes about Chinese and Eastern European literature in the afterword to Notes on the Mosquito<\/em><\/a>, “The Tradition This Instant” \u4f20\u7edf\u5728\u6b64\u65f6\u6b64\u523b:<\/p>\n

A western reader is likely to be reminded here of Mandelstam’s ill-fated “Stalin Epigram<\/a>“. Although Mao is seen posthumously by a poet born in 1960, subsequent Chinese administrations have proved just as interested in\u00a0the ideological demeanour of the arts\u00a0as were Kruschev and his successors in Russia. Xi Chuan’s “Commandments” could be a poem from the eastern bloc of the 1950s (in this translation it recalls Zbigniew Herbert<\/a>): “you shall not covet \/ so it’s not a bad idea to crown yourself king in a dark room \/ and why not cut a skeleton key and carry it in your hand? \/ walk, stop, turn: in that capital city under the light of your sun \/ you will disdain to open each rusted lock”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The version of “Commandments” \u6212\u5f8b quoted here is Holton’s from Jade Ladder<\/em>. My version is included in Notes on the Mosquito<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian has published Sean O’Brien’s review of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc, W N Herbert, Brian Holton, and Qin Xiaoyu\u00a0\u79e6\u6653\u5b87. It’s a fine and enthusiastic take written by an obviously engaged reader conversant with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,3,16,7],"tags":[603,174,38,602,165,604,173,1654,21,143,601],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-gw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":920,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=920","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":0},"title":"Jade Ladder Arrival","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I received my copy of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry from Bloodaxe Books yesterday. Edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc, W N Herbert, Brian Holton, and Qin Xiaoyu\u00a0\u79e6\u6653\u5b87, it's brimming with Chinese poetry from the last thirty-five years, mostly translated by Holton with Lee Man-Kay \u674e\u6f2b\u742a and \/ or Herbert. Jade\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Jade Ladder"","block_context":{"text":"Jade Ladder","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=342"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.word-power.co.uk\/images\/product_images\/9781852248956.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":187,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=187","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":1},"title":"Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just received the press release for another anthology contemporary Chinese poetry, this one edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc and William Herbert (with Brian Holton and Qin Xiaoyu \u79e6\u6653\u5b87 as associate editors) under the title Jade Ladder. It promises to be an exciting collection, and will feature my translations of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=676","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":2},"title":"Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last October I posted about Jade Ladder, a new anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry forthcoming in the UK, edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc and William Herbert (with Brian Holton and Qin Xiaoyu \u79e6\u6653\u5b87 as associate editors). Recently I've been corresponding with Bloodaxe Press about permissions, and while I haven't seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":879,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=879","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":3},"title":"Words Without Borders on the London Book Fair & Contemporary Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Words Without Borders was reporting on location from the London Book Fair, and their report from Day 3 is full of excitement about Chinese poetry in English and the newly published Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, which includes my translations of some of Xi Chuan's work. Here's the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2525,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2525","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":4},"title":"MCLC Review of Jade Ladder","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Modern Chinese Literature & Culture has published Meng Liansu\u2019s review of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc and W. N. Herbert, with Brian Holton and Qin Xiaoyu \u79e6\u6653\u5b87. Here\u2019s how she begins her piece: Jade Ladder is a welcome addition to the handful of anthologies of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mclc.osu.edu\/rc\/pubs\/reviews\/jadeladder.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":931,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=931","url_meta":{"origin":1024,"position":5},"title":"Jade Ladder’s Poets","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've compiled a list of the poets whose work appears in English translation in Jade Ladder, the new anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry edited by Yang Lian \u6768\u70bc, W N Herbert, Brian Holton, and Qin Xiaoyu \u79e6\u6653\u5b87. 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