{"id":1801,"date":"2013-04-15T09:30:40","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T01:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2013-04-07T13:01:54","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T05:01:54","slug":"the-translator-relay-john-balcom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1801","title":{"rendered":"The Translator Relay: John Balcom"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Words without Borders <\/a>talks to translator of Chinese poetry & fiction John Balcom (Recent publications include Stone Cell<\/a> by Lo Fu\u00a0\u6d1b\u592b (Zephyr 2012) and Trees without Wind<\/a> by Li Rui \u674e\u9510 (Columbia University Press 2012)<\/em>). He says:<\/p>\n

What I like about translating poetry is that the often brief text allows for focus.\u00a0 You can keep the entire poem in your head and work on it, fiddling with the words and syntax, the structure and the wordplay.\u00a0 This is perfect during the academic year \u2013 I can work on a translation when I walk to and from the office in the morning and the afternoon.\u00a0\u00a0 Classical poetry, as I alluded to earlier, is challenging in the extreme; modern poetry, which is what I have translated a good deal of over the years, is much more doable.\u00a0 Modern and contemporary Chinese poetry is generally free verse written in the vernacular, which makes for happier results in English.\u00a0 Short stories and essays are also good during the academic year \u2013 I find that if I have to put such texts aside, I can usually pick up where I left off without much trouble. Translating a novel, however, requires stamina, momentum, and uninterrupted focus, which is hard to maintain when I\u2019m teaching.\u00a0 I find it a bit harder to reconnect with a longer text if I have to put it aside for any length of time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click on the image above for the full Q & A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words without Borders talks to translator of Chinese poetry & fiction John Balcom (Recent publications include Stone Cell by Lo Fu\u00a0\u6d1b\u592b (Zephyr 2012) and Trees without Wind by Li Rui \u674e\u9510 (Columbia University Press 2012)). He says: What I like … 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":[1031,1033,1032],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-t3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3615,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3615","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":0},"title":"Balcom\u2019s Ya Hsien on PEN Translated Poetry Shortlist","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Abyss, poems by Ya Hsien \u7602\u5f26, translated by John Balcom (Zephyr Press), has been shortlisted for the 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The $3,000 award recognizes book-length translations of poetry from any language into English published during the current calendar year. The winner will be announced on February\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Abyss-TIFF.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3601,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3601","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":1},"title":"Balcom’s Ya Hsien on PEN Translated Poetry Longlist","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Abyss, poems by Ya Hsien \u7602\u5f26, translated by John Balcom (Zephyr Press), has been longlisted for the 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The $3,000 award recognizes book-length translations of poetry from any language into English published during the current calendar year. Finalist will be announced on January 18,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/sites\/default\/files\/Abyss-TIFF.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4873,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4873","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":2},"title":"Huang Yunte’s Che Qianzi Shortlisted for Stryk Prize","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Huang Yunte's translation of Che Qianzi's No Poetry has been shortlisted for the Lucien Stryk Prize The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize: Hysteria, by Kim Yideum, translated from the Korean by Jake Levine, Soeun Seo, and Hedgie Choi\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/polymorpheditions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/No-poetry-front-cover-2-e1570062380214.jpg?fit=829%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2934,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2934","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":3},"title":"John Balcom’s Xiang Yang forthcoming from Zephyr","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Zephyr Press will be publishing Grass Roots, a collection of poems by Taiwanese poet Xiang Yang \u5411\u967d, translated by John Balcom. The so-called \u201cthird generation poets,\u201d such as Xiang Yang, Du Ye, and Lo Qing, wanted to see a resurgence of Chinese national and local culture after years of foreign\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":3366,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3366","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":4},"title":"Morse Reviews Balcom’s Xiang Yang","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Canaan Morse reviews John Balcom's translation of Grass Roots: Selected Poems by Xiang Yang\u00a0\u5411\u967d (Zephyr) for World Literature Today: Balcom\u2019s ubiquitous preference for merging verbs into adjectival phrases or deleting them entirely strengthens static image and removes dynamic energies that might be considered noisier in English than in Chinese. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.worldliteraturetoday.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2016\/January\/xianggrass.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4329,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4329","url_meta":{"origin":1801,"position":5},"title":"Klein\u2019s Duo Duo Receives 2019 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund Grants","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My translation of the New and Selected poems of Duo Duo \u591a\u591a, forthcoming from Yale University Press's Margellos World Republic of Letters series, the working title of which is Words as Grains, has received a 2019 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund Grant! Now in its sixteenth year, the PEN\/Heim Translation Fund awards\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2019-heim-translation-banner-960-280.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801"}],"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=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1817,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}