{"id":1941,"date":"2013-05-27T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T01:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2013-05-24T10:18:20","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T02:18:20","slug":"a-normal-interview-with-xi-chuan-lucas-klein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1941","title":{"rendered":"A Normal Interview with Xi Chuan & Lucas Klein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/a>Editorial Intern Michael Gray asks Chinese poet Xi Chuan and his translator Lucas Klein tough questions concerning process, navigating translation, and the relationship between literature and reality. Lucas Klein performed the English translation of Xi Chuan\u2019s book Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems <\/a>(2012).<\/em><\/p>\n

For Xi Chuan<\/strong>: What elements of your original text do you find are most altered in the process of translation?<\/p>\n

XC<\/strong>: In my own writing, especially recently, I\u2019m often very blunt, but bluntness can be very hard to translate. I\u2019ve done a lot of translations myself, and in my experience imagery is relatively easy to translate; with musicality, or particularly rhythm, though it\u2019s hard to match the translation perfectly with the original, it\u2019s still possible to find comparable solutions. But with ideas expressed bluntly it\u2019s easy to lose the poetry. Bluntness is a quality of late Borges, because in his early years he was playing with the Baroque. It\u2019s also a notion of expression Milosz was fond of, coming from Eastern Europe. These two stepped outside the bounds of lyrical poetry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See the full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial Intern Michael Gray asks Chinese poet Xi Chuan and his translator Lucas Klein tough questions concerning process, navigating translation, and the relationship between literature and reality. Lucas Klein performed the English translation of Xi Chuan\u2019s book Notes on the … 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":[3,16,7],"tags":[1124,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-vj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1731,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1731","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":0},"title":"Xi Chuan on Translating Poetry at Middlebury","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday, 3\/12, 4:30 PM: Translating Poetry: A roundtable discussion with Chinese poet Xi Chuan, Central Academy for Fine Arts (Beijing), and his translator, Assistant Professor Lucas Klein of City University of Hong Kong, and Middlebury College faculty. Xi Chuan is one of the most well-known contemporary poets writing in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Readings"","block_context":{"text":"Readings","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/middleburywashandcarry.com\/images\/2003-10-07d_middlebury_college.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/middleburywashandcarry.com\/images\/2003-10-07d_middlebury_college.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/middleburywashandcarry.com\/images\/2003-10-07d_middlebury_college.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":746,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=746","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":1},"title":"I\u00a0got a surprise mention from\u2026","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u00a0got a surprise mention from Jacob Edmond the other day on his Common Strangeness blog: discussing the benefit of getting students to appreciate the role of the translator in poetry translation by having asking \"them to read several contrasting translations of the same poem,\" he said: Bei Dao \u5317\u5c9b and\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":888,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=888","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":2},"title":"Lucas Klein on Xi Chuan and translating “Written at Thirty”","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Poetry Society of America has published my translation of Xi Chuan's \"Written at Thirty\" \u5199\u5728\u4e09\u5341\u5c81, along with a brief commentary in which I provide some background on Xi Chuan's life and works, and discuss translating his poetry. Here's how I end the piece: \"Written at Thirty\" comes from right\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":2254,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2254","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":3},"title":"Notes on the Mosquito awarded Lucien Stryk Prize","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"October 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2013 Lucien Stryk Prize went to Lucas Klein for his translation of the Chinese poetry collection Notes on the Mosquito by Xi Chuan. The $5,000 prize, which was established by an anonymous donor, recognizes the best book-length translation into English of Asian poetry or of source texts from Zen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=814"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.utdallas.edu\/news\/imgs\/photos-2013-10\/klein-chuan-500-2013-10.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1723,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=1723","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":4},"title":"Contemporary Chinese Literature in Translation at AWP","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thursday, March 7, 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.: R267. Contemporary Chinese Literature in Translation. (Lucas Klein, Xi Chuan, Jonathan Stalling, Eric Abrahamsen, Eleanor Goodman) Panelists will discuss the pleasures and frustrations they encounter translating contemporary Chinese literature, including issues of linguistic differences between Chinese and English, problems of copyright, the\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":985,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=985","url_meta":{"origin":1941,"position":5},"title":"New Issue of Plume","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"June 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of Plume is here, with new work by, among others, Arthur Sze and Toma\u017e \u0160alamun, translated by Michael Thomas Taren. Click here for my translation of Xi Chuan\u2019s \u201cThe Ant\u2019s Plunder\u201d \u8682\u8681\u52ab, published in Plume last November. And follow this link for information about Chinese Writers on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/plumepoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/23b0451a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/plumepoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/23b0451a.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/plumepoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/23b0451a.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941"}],"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=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1945,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}