{"id":4841,"date":"2020-07-31T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4841"},"modified":"2020-07-30T11:21:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T03:21:34","slug":"joanna-krenz-reviews-admussens-ya-shi-for-cha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4841","title":{"rendered":"Joanna Krenz reviews Admussen’s Ya Shi for Cha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal <\/em>has published Joanna Krenz’s review of the selected poems of Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3, Floral Mutter<\/em> \u82b1\u7684\u4f4e\u8bed, as translated by Nick Admussen (Zephyr and Chinese University Press). Read the epic and erudite review here<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Floral
Joanna Krenz reviews Nick Admussen’s Floral Mutter<\/em>, by Ya Shi, for Cha<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I came across Ya Shi\u2019s works some two or three years ago in Admussen\u2019s renditions on the Lyrikline<\/em> and Poetry International<\/em> websites. I was initially attracted by the author\u2019s short bio, identifying a kindred spirit in this practitioner of mathematics and poetry\u2014two disciplines that are particularly dear to my heart\u2014a graduate of Peking University who left the capital to settle in the countryside in his native Sichuan. I gratefully devoured the handful of texts that were available online in English at the time and kept searching for his collections of poetry and essays in Chinese, planning to include Ya Shi in the Polish-language anthology of Chinese poetry I have been working on. One of the first texts I read and translated was \u201cFull Moon Night\u201d, with the \u201ccursed\u201d qingcui<\/em> in line 8. I was troubled mostly by semantics and not by the tortuous syntax which is quite easy to recreate in highly fusional and structurally flexible Slavic languages. Admussen recalls he tried to retain at least two aspects of qingcui<\/em>: frailty and clearness-and-melodiousness, but \u201cthe superimposition of the two\u201d proved impossible. In Polish there is no perfect solution either, but I was quite satisfied with a near-superimposition, that is an adverb d\u017awi\u0119cznie<\/em> (\u2018clearly, sharply, melodiously\u2019) generously prompted by the ghost of the past. The word in question\u2014and this is lucky for me\u2014often happens to be misheard and misrepeated as wdzi\u0119cznie<\/em> (meaning [1] \u2018gracefully\u2019 or [2] \u2018gratefully\u2019), which preserves part of the semantics of frailty, implying delicateness and proneness to destruction. I recalled a popular song often heard in my grandma\u2019s small village church when I was a child, in which \u201cnightingales are singing ah singing in a clear-and-melodious \/ graceful-or-grateful<\/em> voice\u201d; half of the congregation persistently sticking to d\u017awi\u0119czny<\/em>, and the other half to wdzi\u0119czny<\/em>. I still do not know which one is correct, but the memory of the rough, untrained but energetic and unswervingly faithful voices belonging mostly to old women, one of whom was my beloved grandma, proved quite instrumental in dealing with the lines in question. At the same time, it also influenced my reading of the parenthesized line 10, which I interpreted similarly to Admussen. Now when I look at the poem, I think it may well be taken much more literally, simply as a distance from the smooth maroon surface in the place where one keeps one\u2019s elbows to the coarse far end of the desk, but both of us somehow naturally extended the desk to infinity, to undefined \u201ccoarse distance\u201d, leaving the poem open to more ghosts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Follow the link above for the review in full.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal has published Joanna Krenz’s review of the selected poems of Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3, Floral Mutter \u82b1\u7684\u4f4e\u8bed, as translated by Nick Admussen (Zephyr and Chinese University Press). Read the epic and erudite review here: I came … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,814],"tags":[2007,664,526],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-1g5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4775,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4775","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"position":0},"title":"Cornell Chronicle on Admussen’s Ya Shi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Kate Blackwood on Nick Admussen's translation of Floral Mutter \u82b1\u7684\u4f4e\u8bed, by Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3 Nick Admussen's translation of Floral Mutter \u82b1\u7684\u4f4e\u8bed, by Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3, is now out from Zephyr and Chinese University Presses, and to announce the publication the Cornell Chronicle has published an article under the headline \"Translation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.cornell.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/full_size\/public\/2020-03\/0323_admussen.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3624,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3624","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"position":1},"title":"PEN\/Heim Translation Grant for Admussen’s Ya Shi","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Nick Admussen has received a 2017 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund Grant for his forthcoming translation of Floral Mutter (Zephyr Press), the selected poems of Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3, which PEN describes as a \"master of disjunctive imagery.\" Ya Shi brings language to the precipice of the absurd and holds it over 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":3238,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3238","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"position":2},"title":"Admussen’s Ya Shi at Cha","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal features poems by Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3, as translated by Nick Admussen. From \"An Exiled Poet Addresses his Own Formless Nostalgia\" \u4e00\u4e2a\u6d41\u4ea1\u8bd7\u4eba\u5bf9\u7740\u65e0\u5f62\u7684\u4e61\u6101\u81ea\u8a00\u81ea\u8bed: Don't worry. I've got no evidence here that can harm you. \u653e\u5fc3\u5427\uff0c\u6211\u624b\u4e0a\u6ca1\u6709\u5bf9\u4f60\u4e0d\u5229\u7684\u8bc1\u636e\u3002 Click the image to read more.","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4072,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4072","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"position":3},"title":"The Moving Target: Translation and Chinese Poetry at Leiden","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"On 1\u20132 June 2018, an international group of scholars will meet at Leiden University to discuss fifteen papers that bring together expert knowledge on poetry in Chinese and critical engagement with the notion of translation. Texts, authors, and issues discussed range from the ancient Book of Songs to 21st-century migrant\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":3823,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3823","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"position":4},"title":"Admussen’s Errata","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many people have said that translation--especially poetry translation--is more about interpretation than about accurate representation. What do these interpretations tell us? In one of the best personal essays about translation I've come across, Nick Admussen spots a mistake in a translation he did of a poem by Ya Shi \u54d1\u77f3,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nereview.com\/files\/2017\/07\/Desk1-1-300x203.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4896,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4896","url_meta":{"origin":4841,"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\/4841"}],"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=4841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4842,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4841\/revisions\/4842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}