{"id":115,"date":"2011-10-14T09:13:52","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T01:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2011-10-30T19:26:53","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T11:26:53","slug":"forrest-ganders-introduction-of-xi-chuan-zhou-zan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"Forrest Gander’s Introduction of Xi Chuan & Zhou Zan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The night of October 10 (the hundred-year anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution \u8f9b\u4ea5\u9769\u547d<\/a> that ended the Qing Dynasty \u6e05\u671d<\/a>), Forrest Gander introduced Xi Chuan, Zhou Zan, Marilyn Chin, and Li-young Lee at Manhattan’s 92nd St. Y<\/a>. Here’s the text of his introduction:<\/p>\n

This occasion is as much a celebration of poetry as it is a celebration of translation, that art that plucks from our black hats and blank looks the passport permitting us to cross borders of culture, language and imagination.<\/p>\n

But what if the translations are bad?\u00a0 Picasso claimed, \u201cYou don\u2019t need the masterpiece to get the idea,\u201d but is this true of translations?<\/p>\n

Historically, mistranslations have contributed in signal ways to literary movements. The supposedly newly discovered poems of third-century warrior-poet Ossian\u2014in translations forged by Scot prankster-poet James MacPherson and then really translated into German\u2014fueled Johann von Herder\u2019s Romantic re-conception of German poetics in the 18th century.<\/p>\n

And like von Herder, American poet Ezra Pound helped launch a literary movement stimulated, in part, by translations based on a mistaken interpretation of the nature of the Chinese writing system. Ernst Fenollosa, Pound\u2019s source, was studying Chinese grammar in Japan with Japanese linguistic scholars.<\/p>\n

Many of the Chinese poets included in Push Open the Window,<\/em> the new anthology from Copper Canyon, cut their teeth on bad translations of American poetry. Somehow, they were sufficient for them to get \u201cthe idea.\u201d\u00a0 Or, more importantly for their own work, not necessarily \u201cthe\u201d idea but \u201can\u201d idea.\u00a0 In the 1980\u2019s and 1990\u2019s in China, better translations– Yunte Huang\u2019s version of Ezra Pound\u2019s Pisan Cantos, <\/em>for instance, Zheng Min\u2019s pioneering Contemporary American Poetry<\/em>, and Zhao Yiheng\u2019s Modern American Poetry<\/em> anthology– began to appear. But poets like Bei Dao, who says he looked abroad for models, and Yang Lian, whose book Concentric Circles<\/em> is strongly influenced by Pound\u2019s Cantos,<\/em> had already forged their signature styles. A somewhat younger poet, Yu Jian, discovered translations of Whitman while working in a factory and went on to write poems that reference important but less celebrated American poets like Ron Padgett. Xi Chuan, who straddles two named factions of poets (the Misty and the New Generation Poets), studied English Romantic poetry and wrote a dissertation on Ezra Pound. The post-Mao-generation poets Hu Xudong, who cites Mark Strand and Robert Hass as influences, and Zhou Zan, who translates from English and cites among her influences Denise Levertov and Adrienne Rich, came of age as internet translations of American poetry exploded in China. Both Zhou Zan and Hu Xudong came to study in America, Hu Xudong at the International Writing Program in Iowa and Zhou Zan at Columbia University. Zhai Yongming, also included in Push Open the Window,<\/em> speaks little English but wrote a whole book documenting her road trips through the deserts and mountains of the American west.<\/p>\n

Just this year, at a literary conference in Wuhan, Chinese scholars offered papers on Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Rita Dove, Charles Olson, William Carlos Williams, and ecopoetry, all that remarkable variety squeezed between twenty panels devoted to the work of Charles Bernstein.<\/p>\n

My colleague at Brown University, John Cayley, himself a translator and a publisher of Chinese poetry in translation, notes that historically, English-language translations of Chinese poetry offered to American readers a literature that was \u201cculturally distinct from the poetry of its host language\u201d however much it might be read with \u201cintense pleasure….\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, too, has begun to change and more culturally contextualized poetics and better English translations are revising America\u2019s engagement with Chinese poetry. In the United States, the mid-1980s saw the publication of Eliot Weinberger\u2019s essay \u201cA Few Don\u2019ts for Chinese Poets\u201d and his classic translation study 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei<\/em>. More recently, several major anthologies, Michelle Yeh\u2019s Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry,<\/em> Zhang Er\u2019s Another Kind of Nation: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Writing, <\/em>Arthur Sze\u2019s Chinese Writers on Writing, <\/em>\u00a0Qingping Wang\u2019s Push Open the Window, <\/em>and The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry<\/em> have indeed unlatched the shutters and pushed open the window.<\/p>\n

The China-born Ha Jin, mostly known in the United States as a fiction writer who writes in English, says that if he wrote in Chinese now, he would write poetry, not fiction, because \u201cat this moment, poetry is more promising. It can do more for the language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the explosive richness of contemporary poetry in America now, I would suggest that here too, in this historical moment, poetry offers the most to literature in English.\u00a0 The early 21st century is one of the most turbulent and critical times for poetry in the cultures of both countries.<\/p>\n

Just as American poet Marilyn Chin shuffles fragments, for example, from John Berryman with her own nervy colloquial precision, and unsplices the resonant emotional and political implications of immigrant narratives within American mythologies and vice versa, the Chinese poet Xi Chuan considers China\u2019s past through the lens of a modernized West; he shuffles antique dictions with colloquial ones; he braids the analytical essay with the ode to things. But though he wrote a dissertation on Pound\u2019s Chinese cantos, his work seems most influenced by European philosophy and literature, Kafka, I\u2019d guess, and Nietszche. Chinese poet Zhou Zan, whose poetry often focuses on the process of creation, sometimes writes in short parabolic descriptive sentences and at other times juxtaposes paratactic clauses in stanzas that incorporate multiple voices and windmilling social and personal observations. Well-known American poet Li-young Lee animates his own family memories with a famously sensual palette.<\/p>\n

In the writing of Marilyn Chin and Li-young Lee, the entanglement of cultures and languages collaborates with theme and style. Other American poets, notably Charles Wright, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, and Jeffrey Yang, have found in Chinese poetry a renewable source of inspiration. But with regard to the influence of American poetry on contemporary Chinese poetry, the connections may be hard to specify.\u00a0 European and Hollywood films, French literary theory, Continental philosophy and increasing opportunities for travel abroad have thoroughly affected contemporary Chinese poetry. As you listen tonight to poems by American poets and translations into English of recent Chinese poems, you may hear indications of influence. But be wary. As Xi Chuan writes in Lucas Klein\u2019s translation of Notes on the Mosquito,<\/em> coming out next year from New Directions, \u201cNo one can tell the difference between the place where a mosquito has landed and a place where a mosquito has not landed…\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night of October 10 (the hundred-year anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution \u8f9b\u4ea5\u9769\u547d that ended the Qing Dynasty \u6e05\u671d), Forrest Gander introduced Xi Chuan, Zhou Zan, Marilyn Chin, and Li-young Lee at Manhattan’s 92nd St. Y. Here’s the text of … 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":[12,9,16,7],"tags":[24,17,25,1654,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-1R","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=83","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":0},"title":"Poet in New York","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From 8:15 on the evening of Monday, October 10, Forrest Gander will be introducing a night of Chinese and Chinese-American poetry at the 92nd St. Why in Manhattan, featuring Marilyn Chin and Li-young Lee \u674e\u7acb\u63da with Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan. If you're in New York, take a break from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Xi-Chuan-Zhou-Zan-Marilyn-Chin-Li-young-Lee.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=11","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":1},"title":"Xi Chuan & Zhou Zan US Reading Tour for Copper Canyon Press","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Xi Chuan will be reading with Zhou Zan \u5468\u74d2 to promote the publication of the NEA Anthology Push Open the Window: Contemporary Poetry from China (featuring my translations of three Xi Chuan pieces, as well as some by Qing Ping \u6e05\u5e73). Event Dates: September 29, 7:00 p.m. Seattle, WA: Seattle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readings"","block_context":{"text":"Readings","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1128,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1128","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":2},"title":"Contemporary Poetry from China: A Reading and Discussion with Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/youtu.be\/l4PhZxQTD_E Poetry reading and discussion with Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan\u00a0\u5468\u74d2 at the Library of Congress last October in promotion of Push Open the Window. Xi Chuan read his poems in Chinese and English in my translation; Zhou Zan read her poems in Chinese, with English translations read by Carolyn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthologies"","block_context":{"text":"Anthologies","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/l4PhZxQTD_E\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=28","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":3},"title":"Write-up of Xi Chuan & Zhou Zan’s Port Townsend Reading","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Italian translator Matt Rowe attended the recent Xi Chuan \/ Zhou Zan reading, and offered the following write-up: Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan read on Saturday 1 October in Port Townsend, the second stop on their U.S. tour for the new anthology Push Open The Window. The audience was small\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readings"","block_context":{"text":"Readings","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=144","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":4},"title":"Translation & Cultural Distinction","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In his introduction to Xi Chuan and Zhou Zan from their 92nd St. Y reading on October 10th, Forrest Gander referred to something his Brown University colleague John Cayley had said about classical Chinese poetry in English translation. Sylvia Lin and Howard Goldblatt, the translation editors of the NEA anthology\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":3099,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3099","url_meta":{"origin":115,"position":5},"title":"Video of Birds of Metal in Flight Readings","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Readings by Marilyn Nelson, Bei Dao \u5317\u5c9b,\u00a0Afaa Weaver, Zhai Yongming \u7fdf\u6c38\u660e, Pierre\u00a0Joris, Xi Chuan \u897f\u5ddd, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Zhou Zan \u5468\u74d2, Charles Bernstein, and Ouyang Jianghe \u6b27\u9633\u6c5f\u6cb3, followed by remarks from Xu Bing \u5f90\u51b0, introduced by Lydia Liu \u5218\u79be. \u00a0 http:\/\/youtu.be\/QzIw4hiZCsA For Xi Chuan reading my translation of \"Bloom\" \u5f00\u82b1, jump\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"collage by Tara Coleman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Xi-Chuan-Bernstein-Phoenix.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Xi-Chuan-Bernstein-Phoenix.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Xi-Chuan-Bernstein-Phoenix.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Xi-Chuan-Bernstein-Phoenix.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}