{"id":1599,"date":"2013-02-04T10:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T02:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2013-02-01T16:49:39","modified_gmt":"2013-02-01T08:49:39","slug":"canaan-morse-on-xi-chuans-new-book-in-chinese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1599","title":{"rendered":"Canaan Morse on Xi Chuan’s new book in Chinese"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"I'm<\/a>In “Say What You Won’t<\/a>,” Canaan Morse reviews Enough for A Dream<\/em> \u591f\u4e00\u68a6,\u00a0 Xi Chuan’s newest collection of poems in Chinese. Morse writes:<\/p>\n

Local language allows these poems to represent their respective subjects with painful honesty\u2014not through invective, but rather through a soft, playful sarcasm that appears to be one of the hallmarks of Xi Chuan\u2019s work. Nearly every poetic statement in the first section of Enough<\/em> is satirical, invented or absurd, yet can provide the reader truly useful information. The mechanism of irony, which is merciless as only humor can be, slips the knife between the ribs and twists it.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In the high-energy environment of the poem, any image when first introduced is made vast by its potential significance. Xi Chuan brings those images in as they are, and then, through a simple repetition or a partial denial, deflates them. The reader becomes spectator to a farcical event, and is tempted to laugh. This ironical disbelief of the narrator\u2019s own discourse appears with variations so often throughout the poems in Enough for a Dream<\/em>, we should be able to consider it characteristic of Xi Chuan\u2019s poetic voice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image above to read the whole piece, along with a poem of Morse’s in Chinese in echo of one of Xi Chuan’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In “Say What You Won’t,” Canaan Morse reviews Enough for A Dream \u591f\u4e00\u68a6,\u00a0 Xi Chuan’s newest collection of poems in Chinese. Morse writes: Local language allows these poems to represent their respective subjects with painful honesty\u2014not through invective, but rather … 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":[3,814,7],"tags":[93,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-pN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":862,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=862","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":0},"title":"Canaan Morse on Contemporary Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at the Metre Maids poetry blog, Pathlight poetry editor Canaan Morse has a poignant and touching post about contemporary Chinese poetry--featuring discussion of my translation of Xi Chuan's \"The Body and History\" \u4f53\u76f8\u4e0e\u5386\u53f2. Canaan explains: Obscure to a Western reader, \u201cdouble corneas\u201d and heavy earlobes are references to Xiang\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":926,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=926","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":1},"title":"Metre Maids on Xi Chuan at the Bookworm","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Translator & poet Sarah Stanton of the Metre Maids blog has posted a write-up of my event with Xi Chuan at the Beijing Bookworm last Thursday night. Comprehensive and enthusiastic, her coverage not only chronicles the event, but some of Xi Chuan's background as well. Here's my favorite moment of\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":336,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=336","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":2},"title":"International Poetry Nights Wrap-up","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The final reading of the International Poetry Nights Hong Kong 2011 took place last night, with Paul Muldoon (Ireland \/ USA), Tian Yuan \u7530\u539f (China\/Japan), and Yip Fai \u8449\u7147 (Hong Kong) reading. Tian Yuan also read the poems of Japanese poet\u00a0Shuntar\u00f4 Tanikawa, who was prevented from traveling due to illness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Poetry Nights"","block_context":{"text":"International Poetry Nights","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1558,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1558","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":3},"title":"Canaan Morse on “Poetic Creation and the Online Environment”","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"From Paper Republic: Chinese poet and poetry critic Qin Xiaoyu invited the Proletarian to attend a meeting at Peking University last Friday on poetry in online media. The meeting was sponsored and chaired by Yang Erwen, founder of ArtsBj.com (\u5317\u4eac\u6587\u827a\u7f51), and Yang Lian, whom Yang Erwen has worked into some\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":329,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=329","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":4},"title":"Last Day of International Poetry Nights Hong Kong","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Having edited Chinese to English translations for the International Poetry Nights' Words & the World booklets, I am familiar with all the participating poets who write in Chinese. Still, having a chance to hear Hongkong poet Wong Leung Wo \u738b\u826f\u548c read his poems--written in standard Chinese, pronounced as Mandarin in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Poetry Nights"","block_context":{"text":"International Poetry Nights","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1370,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1370","url_meta":{"origin":1599,"position":5},"title":"Bookslut Reviews Notes on the Mosquito","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The online literary journal Bookslut has posted Greer Mansfield's excellent review of my translation of Xi Chuan titled \"Notes on Xi Chuan\u2019s Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems.\" Here's an excerpt: Xi Chuan has translated Borges and even written a poem about him, but these prose poems bring to mind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599"}],"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=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}