{"id":1047,"date":"2012-07-20T11:07:09","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T03:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1047"},"modified":"2012-07-20T11:07:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T03:07:09","slug":"fiona-sze-lorrain-on-jeffrey-yangs-translatoin-of-liu-xiaobos-june-fourth-elegies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1047","title":{"rendered":"Fiona Sze-Lorrain on Jeffrey Yang’s translatoin of Liu Xiaobo’s June Fourth Elegies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image <\/a>Fiona Sze-Lorrain<\/a>‘s review of Jeffrey Yang<\/a>‘s translation of June Fourth Elegies<\/em> \u5ff5\u5ff5\u516d\u56db by Liu Xiaobo <\/a>\u5218\u6653\u6ce2 is now up on Words Without Borders<\/em><\/a>. Strangely, her review doesn’t mention Yang by name, but she does discuss the translation, calling it “a stylistic rendering of Liu Xiaobo\u2019s plainspoken language, which at times can be physical\u2014gnawing and piercing in its implications.”<\/p>\n

Here’s how she begins her review:<\/p>\n

Poetry charts a circular path to freedom for Chinese political activist and writer Liu Xiaobo. \u201cI am merely \/ a discarded wooden plank \/ powerless to resist the crushing of steel \/ still, I want to save you no matter if you\u2019re \/ dead or still barely breathing, breathing,\u201d the poet writes in \u201cMemories of a Wooden Plank,\u201d on the twelfth anniversary of the 1989 Tian\u2019anmen Massacre.\u00a0 Powerless to narrate history as a public intellectual in his own country, Liu finds in poetry a force of resistance and an unlikely promise of solace.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m still alive \/ with a name of some disrepute \/ I possess neither courage nor qualifications,\u201d he confesses in the second elegy, \u201cFor 17.\u201d\u00a0 A year after writing those lines, Liu still believes poetry has a singular power to disarm.\u00a0 As he concludes in the third elegy, \u201cSuffocating City Square:\u201d<\/p>\n

This death-cast girl
\nhas become a line of pure poetry
\nthat surrenders all ideograms<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fiona Sze-Lorrain‘s review of Jeffrey Yang‘s translation of June Fourth Elegies \u5ff5\u5ff5\u516d\u56db by Liu Xiaobo \u5218\u6653\u6ce2 is now up on Words Without Borders. Strangely, her review doesn’t mention Yang by name, but she does discuss the translation, calling it “a … 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":[3,16],"tags":[57,45,553],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-gT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3820,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3820","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":0},"title":"Admussen on Liu Xiaobo’s Love Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of the recent passing of Liu Xiaobo \u5218\u6653\u6ce2, here is a link to an old piece, which had slipped by without my noticing it when it was first published: Nick Admussen's \"Awkward, Diligent: Liu Xiaobo's Love Poetry\" for his wife, Liu Xia \u5218\u971e. Admussen writes: In addition to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bostonreview.net\/sites\/default\/files\/xiabo-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1499,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1499","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":1},"title":"Notes on the Mosquito on WLT\u2019s 75 Notable Translations 2012","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"World Literature Today has posted its list of seventy-five notable translations for 2012, and it features my translation of Xi Chuan's Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems, along with only three other books by East Asian writers. The list also includes Jeffrey Yang's translation of June Fourth Elegies \u5ff5\u5ff5\u516d\u56db by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":970,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=970","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":2},"title":"Julia Lovell on Liu Xiaobo’s No Enemies, No Hatred","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Julia Lovell's review of No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems of Liu Xiaobo \u5218\u6653\u6ce2, edited by Perry Link, Tienchi Martin-Liao, and Liu Xia, is now up on Modern Chinese Literature & Culture. Here's an excerpt: Reflecting Liu's own political turn after 1989, the editors of No Enemies, No\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mclc.osu.edu\/rc\/pubs\/reviews\/liuxiaobo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3596,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3596","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":3},"title":"Jeffrey Yang on Translation","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Jeffrey Yang, poet, editor, and translator of Uyghur and Chinese poetry (both classical and modern, including Liu Xiaobo\u2019s \u5218\u6653\u6ce2 June Fourth Elegies, Su Shi\u2019s\u00a0\u8607\u8efe East Slope, and Bei Dao\u2019s \u5317\u5c9b forthcoming memoir\u00a0City Gate, Open Up) answers questions as part of Words Without Borders' \"Translator Relay\": You are a translator, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3818,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3818","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":4},"title":"Graywolf Press on the Death of Liu Xiaobo","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Liu Xiaobo\u00a0\u5218\u6653\u6ce2, human rights activist, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and poet, died on July 13, 2017--less than a month after he was granted medical parole for a terminal liver cancer diagnosis. Graywolf Press, which published his poetry and that of his wife Liu Xia\u00a0\u5218\u971e in English translation, now has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.graywolfpress.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Liu%20Xiaobo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":972,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=972","url_meta":{"origin":1047,"position":5},"title":"Russell Scott Valentino on Making World Literature","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at The Iowa Review editor & translator Russell Scott Valentino has a quick post about the Banff International Literary Translation Centre titled Making World Literature. Here's a paragraph: Yesterday we talked at some length about methods of reading, preparing a text, working with authors, and revising. 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