{"id":2535,"date":"2014-04-07T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T01:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2535"},"modified":"2014-03-18T10:42:20","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T02:42:20","slug":"letter-from-hong-kong-on-your-impossible-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2535","title":{"rendered":"Letter from Hong Kong on Your Impossible Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Xi<\/a>Your Impossible Voice <\/a>has published my “Letter from Hong Kong,” about the International Poetry Nights.<\/p>\n

Reviewing exiled Chinese poet Bei Dao\u2019s first full-length collection The August Sleepwalker<\/i> in English in 1990, a professor quipped, \u201cThese could just as easily be translations from a Slovak or an Estonian or a Philippine poet. It could even be a kind of American poetry\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a certain perspective\u2014say, that of the seventeenth century\u2014the reviewer was right … But from the perspective of poetry today, which is to say, from the perspective of people who habitually, consciously, and conscientiously read contemporary poetry around the world, do all cultures and languages and poetries blend together?<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

We have not had Slovak or Estonian poets, but Albanian poet Luljeta Lleshanaku, from the 2009 festival, and Russian Arkadii Dragomoshchenko and Slovene Toma\u017e \u0160alamun, from 2011, may serve as sufficient examples, as will 2013 Filipina participant Conchitina Cruz and American Jeffrey Yang.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then I translate Chen Maiping’s \u9673\u9081\u5e73 Chinese translation of Aase Berg’s Swedish poetry into English, to compare against the English by Johannes G\u00f6ransson.<\/p>\n

Click on the image above for the whole piece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your Impossible Voice has published my “Letter from Hong Kong,” about the International Poetry Nights. Reviewing exiled Chinese poet Bei Dao\u2019s first full-length collection The August Sleepwalker in English in 1990, a professor quipped, \u201cThese could just as easily be … 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":[8,3,16,7],"tags":[1062,66,50,1026,1244,45,1061,1379,71],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-ET","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":298,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=298","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":0},"title":"Bei Dao’s Note for the International Poetry Nights Hong Kong 2011","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The following is Bei Dao's \"Note from the Editor,\" which I translated for the International Poetry Nights' Words & the World anthology: Poetry exists between the word and the world. With the key of language, poetry unlocks the world from its state of concealment. As Heidegger pointed out in Poetry,\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":4532,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4532","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":1},"title":"Bei Dao in WLT Hong Kong feature","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Bei Dao, \"Dwelling Poetically in Hong Kong\" As part of its feature on Hong Kong writing, guest-edited by Tammy Ho--featuring writing by Xi Xi \u897f\u897f as translated by Jennifer Feeley, poetry by Chris Song \u5b8b\u5b50\u6c5f, and more--World Literature Today has published my translation of \"Dwelling Poetically in Hong Kong,\" by\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":245,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=245","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":2},"title":"Weinberger & Subin in Hongkong","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I had lunch yesterday with Nina Subin & Eliot Weinberger (New Directions author and translator of Octavio Paz and Bei Dao \u5317\u5cf6, among others), in town for work with Chinese University Press on their way to Vietnam and Laos. The topics--they're epic conversationalists--ranged from Cantonese cuisine to museums under colonialism\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\/U2JDMad1VZA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3916,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3916","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":3},"title":"Ancient Enmity–International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Ancient Enmity \u53e4\u8001\u7684\u6575\u610f, the multilingual collection of volumes for the 2017 International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong, is now available from Chinese University Press. Edited by Bei Dao \u5317\u5cf6, Chris Song \u5b8b\u5b50\u6c5f, and Lucas Klein, Ancient Enmity comprises an anthology plus twenty-four individual booklets: Maram Al-Masri, from Barefoot Souls; Gabeba\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"No automatic alt text available.","src":"https:\/\/scontent.fhkg3-1.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/22886199_2054311371457314_1690974109376033728_n.jpg?oh=b0f9ad0035eeb285c9885414e0816024&oe=5AA0BE66","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":329,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=329","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"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":4896,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4896","url_meta":{"origin":2535,"position":5},"title":"Missteps, Errata, Discoveries: A Translation Forum","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Missteps, Errata, Discoveries: A Translation Forum \"Missteps, Errata, Discoveries: A Translation Forum\" features literary translators Nick Admussen, Eileen Chow, Brian Holton, Joanna Krenz, Chris Song, and Matt Turner, who will talk about how mistranslations might also be 'portals to discovery', as Stephen Dedalus put it. There will be a short\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\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/124072216_4052161454799714_400450172567407129_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535"}],"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=2535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2536,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2535\/revisions\/2536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}