{"id":723,"date":"2012-02-17T12:05:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T04:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=723"},"modified":"2012-02-17T12:12:04","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T04:12:04","slug":"xi-chuans-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=723","title":{"rendered":"Xi Chuan’s “Books”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Looking at the tumblr posts <\/a>in which Xi Chuan has been mentioned, I noticed an often-repeated, and re-tweeted, quote:<\/p>\n

The lofty bookshelves sag
\nUnder thousands of sleeping souls
\nSilence, hopeful\u2014
\nEvery time I open a book, a soul is awakened.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(It even shows up in Spanish, as well as German, above). It’s beautiful, and takes on a special weight in age of e-books–perhaps, ironically, why it has been spread so readily on the internet–and yet, interestingly, I could not place the quote. I knew it was \"\"<\/a>not my translation (despite the fact that Goodr<\/a>eads <\/a>thinks that it comes from my Tinfish chapbook Yours Truly & Other Poems<\/em><\/a>), which means that Xi Chuan and I had not selected it for inclusion in Notes on the Mosquito,<\/em><\/a> and I couln’t find it in Michael Day’s translations on the DACHS archive<\/a>… so where did it come from, and how was it phrased in Xi Chuan’s Chinese?<\/p>\n

\u00a0A bit more googling turned up the quote again as an epigraph to a chapter in\u00a0Inkspell<\/em><\/a>, by German\u00a0 children’s author \"\"<\/a>Cornelia Funke, which attributed the quote to “New Generation<\/em>“–more than a hint that it might be from the Wang Ping<\/a>-edited anthology, New Generation: Poems from China Today<\/em><\/a> (Hanging Loose Press, 1999). And indeed, on pp. 145 – 146, in the poem “Books” \u4e66\u7c4d, I found the source, as translated by Wang with Murat Nemet-Nejat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And yet the quote as it’s been disseminated is not completely accurate–between lines two and three of the section another couplet is missing, which to my mind separate two moments of high lyricism and rescue the poem from overstated melodrama. At any rate, here is the poem in full as it appears in New Generation<\/em> (click here <\/a>for the poem in Chinese):<\/p>\n

\n

Books<\/strong><\/p>\n

Books should be illuminated by torches,
\njust as the Incas illuminated their city.<\/p>\n

Torches shone on its
\nwoven fabric, pears, gold and silver utensils–<\/p>\n

objects that time uses to express itself
\nfrom opposition to unity, revealing the secret of fate,<\/p>\n

like Hercules and Plato
\nattracted by the same spring bee.<\/p>\n

“All books are the same book,”
\npale Mallarm\u00e9 said with confidence.<\/p>\n

All mistakes are the same mistake,
\nlike Ptolemy’s research into earth and stars,<\/p>\n

his precise calculations
\nthat only led him to absurd conclusions.<\/p>\n

Books create a space larger than books.
\nThe life of fire ends in its own flame.<\/p>\n

Emperor Qin Shi haunted the library hallway
\nand Aldous Huxley,<\/p>\n

robbed of the past by a fire,
\nclarified the rest of his life in a single lecture.<\/p>\n

I see a rose
\ncovered with dust; what else can death do?<\/p>\n

The lofty bookshelves sag
\nunder thousands of sleeping souls.<\/p>\n

We live together,
\nhiding beneath the spirit’s torch.<\/p>\n

Silence, hopeful–
\nevery time I open a book, a soul is awakened.<\/p>\n

A strange woman walks
\nin a city I’ve never seen.<\/p>\n

A funeral is taking place
\nin a dusk I’ve never entered.<\/p>\n

Othello’s anger, Hamlet’s conscience,
\nTruth spoken at will, muffled bells.<\/p>\n

I read a family prophecy.
\nThe pains I’ve seen are no more than the pains themselves.<\/p>\n

History records only a few people’s deeds:
\nThe rest is silence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at the tumblr posts in which Xi Chuan has been mentioned, I noticed an often-repeated, and re-tweeted, quote: The lofty bookshelves sag Under thousands of sleeping souls Silence, hopeful\u2014 Every time I open a book, a soul is awakened. … 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":[370,330,369,15,368,1654],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-bF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":761,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=761","url_meta":{"origin":723,"position":0},"title":"Fact-checking Translations","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"March 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A new book whose provocations seem to be helping it make the rounds is The Lifespan of a Fact, by John D\u2019Agata and Jim Fingal (click here for a critical NYTimes review), where D'Agata argues that facts are often irrelevant in the pursuit of art, and that \"nonfiction\" essentially means\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2012\/02\/21\/books\/review\/26mcdonald\/26mcdonald-articleLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2012\/02\/21\/books\/review\/26mcdonald\/26mcdonald-articleLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graphics8.nytimes.com\/images\/2012\/02\/21\/books\/review\/26mcdonald\/26mcdonald-articleLarge.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":594,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=594","url_meta":{"origin":723,"position":1},"title":"Xi Chuan at Seattle Public Library","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"January 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On January 9, three days after Xi Chuan's talk at the MLA, the Seattle Public Library will host a reading with him and Prof. Paul Manfredi in an event co-sponsored by the Elliot Bay Book Company. 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Here's an excerpt: From kitchen sink approaches to poems with more intentional goals, part of the fun is reveling\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":359,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=359","url_meta":{"origin":723,"position":3},"title":"Tinfish Retro Series Writeup","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"November 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On November 6 I posted about Matthew DeKneef's writeup of Tinfish Press\u2019s Retro Series of chapbooks in the Honolulu Weekly, including special mention of Xi Chuan\u2019s Yours Truly & Other Poems. 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