Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
6月 26, 2011
Liebe Freunde,
Ai Weiwei_Martin Winter
(Basler Zeitung Di., 27. Juli 2011)
Ai Weiweis Gedicht "Wir sprechen uns später" ist in der aktuellen Ausgabe der Zeit (7.-14. Juli). Kam am Donnerstag
heraus, nach China kommt die aktuelle Ausgabe immer erst am Montag, wenn sie kommt. Dann kostet sie 120 Volkstaler,
dreimal so viel wie in Deutschland. Die Übersetzung ist von Angelika Burgsteiner und mir. In den Tagen nach Ai Weiweis
Freilassung war dazu ein Artikel von Bei Ling, den ich übersetzt habe, in der FAZ, in der Presse und auf derstandard.at.
Das Gedicht erschien 1987 in der von Yan Li herausgegebenen chinesischsprachigen Zeitschrift Yi Hang (oder Yi Xing, d.h.
Eine Zeile/ Eine Gruppe) in New York. Ai Weiwei erinnert sich an das Gedicht, weil es das einzige ist, das er je geschrieben
hat, sagt er.
Zeit_2011_7.Juli_AiWeiwei
Wir haben Ai Weiwei am Freitag in der Früh besucht. Er wirkte noch ziemlich mitgenommen. Ich bekam den Eindruck, er wurde
eher zu von der Staatssicherheit vermuteten politischen Hintergründen von alten Fotos aus New York befragt als zu steuerlichen
Vorwürfen gegen ihn. Aber wir haben nicht viel gefragt. Für die Aktionen zu seiner Unterstützung war er sehr dankbar, obwohl
er bei manchen Sachen auch etwas skeptisch ist. Die aktuelle Ausstellung in Winterthur kommt bald nach Graz, und die Sache in
Bregenz fängt auch in diesem Monat an. Aber er kann ja leider nirgends selbst hinfahren. Manche Projekte, die er vorher begonnen
hat, scheinen ihm jetzt fast fremd geworden zu sein. Er möchte gerne gastfreundlich sein und frei reden wir früher. Aber wie er
selbst sagt, jetzt geht es ihm eben wie vielen anderen, und eher wie vielen gewöhnlichen Leuten, die auch nicht zuviel
den Mund aufmachen dürfen. Als Wegzehrung für den Rückweg haben wir ein paar Sonnenblumenkerne mitbekommen.
Herzliche Grüße, mw
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/07/liao-yiwu-leaves-china.html
Silence of the dissidents
The Ancient Roots of Chinese Liberalism
台灣自由時報副刊全版刊〈草泥馬時代的艾未未〉文，照竟也全刊出了
The source for Ai Weiwei’s poem
严力：说说艾未未（之二） （2011.5）
严 力：说说艾未未（之三）
严力：说说艾未未（之四）
Hu Jia released after years in Chinese prison
@faz_net Weit hinter der chinesischen Firewall http://t.co/LIbIuTv 貝嶺 Bei Ling (June 25). http://derstandard.at/1308679661187/Die-Freilassung-Ai-Weiweis-Ai-Weiweis-Zukunft Ai Weiwei mit Maulkorb: Wie lange wird er das aushalten? Der Aktionskünstler ist wieder auf freiem Fuß, aber unter scharfen Auflagen: Gibt es echte Freiheit für ihn nur um den Preis des Exils?
中文刊於6月24日台灣蘋果日報
英譯刊於6月25日台北時報（Taipei Times）: What will be the price of Ai Weiwei’s freedom? By Bei Ling 貝嶺
Berliners for Ai Weiwei (He lost a lot of weight in prison, so he might as well have some!)
See also Berlin’s Tagesspiegel from June 23rd 柏林《每日鏡報》6月24日文化版
标签：Ai Weiwei, art, beijing, china, Der Standard, Die Presse, dissident, FAZ, freedom, HuJia, law, literature, politics
发表在 July 2011, June 2011, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
6月 15, 2011
pentecost
many stars are out tonight
many clouds around the moon
i can’t see her from this house
she must be around the corner
must be round the neighborhood
it is pentecost today
and we heard a lovely sermon
dorothea’s going soon
there is too much distance here
people cannot feel the spirit
god vibrating on the water
jewish men from different countries
like it says there in the bible
can we understand each other
although we don’t speak the language
many men from different places
many people in vienna
are we very far from jesus
everything looks very nice
and the weather has been lovely
are we safe here in vienna
can we feel the holy spirit
dorothea preached a sermon
and we felt at home a little
some of them don’t come to church
but they are for renovation
dorothea is a priestess
and christine is a priestess
and they have a lot of spirit
so they even made us welcome
i don’t understand the people
those who dominate the churches
i don’t care for them at all
we come for the weekly service
for the singing, for the organ
for a certain tolerance
it was better for the children
when it looked a little shabby
it’s a little bit like china
there’s not much democracy
and not very much religion
god is in the organ music
the vibration on the water
it is pentecost this weekend
lovely little holiday
so we’re going to the water
at the danube, for the children
we meet friends and we meet strangers
kari astrid jennifer
dorothea babtized maia
pentecost one year ago
leo’s doing better now
we had many languages
for vienna’s night of churches
it was dorothea’s project
we will have the taiwan choir
it’s an ordinary church
we are strangers in vienna
although we belong here now
MW June 2011
Thanks to Malika Saulnier!
Thanks to Malika Saulnier!
A spirits outlet in Vienna's 16th district. Thanks to Thomas Palfinger!
A spirits outlet in Vienna's 16th district. Thanks to Thomas Palfinger!
A spirits outlet in Vienna's 16th district. Thanks to Thomas Palfinger!
标签：friends, life, pauluskirche, pentecost, people, religion, spirit, strangers, Vienna
发表在 June 2011, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
6月 2, 2011
so (children’s day)
it is children’s day today
so i’m very very tired
as i’ve been for many years
so i don’t appear so often
so i’m very very late
so i’m here like anyone
so we’re doing what we can
so i’ll have another birthday
so we’ve china to remember
so we’ve 1989
so we’re doing what we can
MW June 1st, 2011
标签：1989, 6.4, 6/4, Ai Weiwei, birthday, children, Children's Day, china, dissident, Elfriede Jelinek, family, June, justice, kids, life, Liu Xiaobo, memory
发表在 June 2011, Uncategorized, Welcome! | 1 Comment »
4月 8, 2011
Interesting. Please click on the Global Times link （also at the bottom）, read the article and then click on the “Related” links under the article. These other stories add a lot of perspective, through earlier and mostly positive Global Times coverage of Ai Weiwei’s various projects and activities. I remember seeing Lian Chan 連戰 on TV in Taiwan in the 1980s*. He was prime minister then, I think. Kept saying “Yi fa bali! 依法辦理”. To be handled according to law. Everything should be handled according to law. This was already after martial law 戒嚴 was lifted 解嚴 in 1987. But many opposition figures and activists were still in prison (they had a prison island, “Green Island” 綠島, for example) or barred from returning to Taiwan. Martial law had been lifted, but many laws from the One-Party-rule were still on the books, and actually still enforced (See the poem “After Martial Law Was Lifted – In Commemoration of Lifting Martial Law in Taiwan on July 15th, 1987” by Li Qin’an [李勤岸 – 解嚴以後 – 一九八七年七月十五日臺灣解嚴紀念] http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/dujuan99nihon/30163376.html). Now which law is the Global Times article referring to? Let US bake our cake of social progress and eat it at the same time, and have it OUR way, and let nobody in the world talk too much about it, because this is the LAW. Right?
Very interesting how they keep on contradicting themselves. “Was said to have been detained”. Was he, or was he not? Maybe just kidnapped? “It was reported his departure procedures were incomplete.” Interesting. So which law will not concede before Ai Weiwei? Which departure procedures law? No, it’s THE LAW. Shoot first, deflect questions later.* Happens in every society.
Martin
======================================
Global Times (4/6/11):
http://en.huanqiu.com/opinion/editorial/2011-04/641187.html
Law will not concede before maverick
法律不会为特立独行者弯曲_评论_环球网: http://bit.ly/hwH7G4, most discussed on @dujuan99/china (http://bit.ly/evC5Ka) See also China Geeks (4/8/11).
魏京生: 从艾未未事件看中国法制的演变
Geremie Barme on Ai Qing and Ai Weiwei
Nude photos and other incriminating activities of Ai Weiwei
It’s really very simple, and even seems a bit tedious when you think about it. Yet I go on watching these shows. What else would you have me look at, dear readers?
Salman Rushdie
Who is afraid of Ai Weiwei？(Language Log)
貝嶺：裸體公民艾未未 (China Times, also in Ming Pao)
Photo by Katharina Hesse
There are many relations of this case to other arrests like the one on April 8 of Zhao Lianhai 趙連海, speaker for parents whose children had been poisoned by tainted milk.
Zhao had been released on parole after beeing imprisoned for “disturbing the peace”. But on April 6, he uplaoded a moving video, holding his child and trying to make a public statement at home.
*This blog entry started out as a post on the MCLC email listserv. A lively discussion ensued. Andrew Field pointed out that Lu Xun 魯迅 and many other modern writers were banned in Taiwan under martial law. James Dew, Tim Wong, Kirk Denton, Christopher Lupke and others remembered how foreign students read these writers in a special room at Taiwan University, and how Chen Yingzhen 陳映真 connected to Lu Xun and the May Fourth tradition. Chen was imprisoned for “pro-communist activities”. Tai Jingnong 台静农 (1903～1990), a well-known writer and painter in Taiwan, was originally a student of Lu Xun.
* Jerome Cohen uses a similar expression in the South China Morning Post (4/27/11): “Second, it also seems clear that, whatever the evidence being assembled about tax evasion or other charges, this was not the motivation for Ai’s detention. This case started out on a ‘detain first and look for justification later’ basis.”
Chinese rock music related to Ai Weiwei: http://www.zuoxiaozuzhou.com/, via Jeroen Groenewegen
标签：Ai Weiwei, art, china, civil rights, 环球时报, 纽约, 艾未未, 裸照, 魯迅, 贝岭, FAZ, Global Times, Hong Kong, human rights, law, lawyers, Lu Xun, martial law, May 2011, Ming Pao weekly, nude pictures, nudity, prison, protests, rights, taiwan, 明報, 法兰克福汇报
发表在 April 2011, May 2011, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
3月 30, 2011
innehalten
(fuer japan, yunnan, burma …)
die tage die blueten
die spitzen die gruenen
die weissen die gelben
die bienen die fliegen
die wogen die steigen
die wagen die treiben
die erde die bebt und
das leben das keimt
MW Maerz 2011
http://tokyowriter.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/quakebook/、http://en.wordpress.com/tag/quakebook/、
hold it
(quakes, tsunamis, nuclear threats …)
the days of the blossoms
the yellow the white
the shoots and the air
and the birds and the bees
the flies and the beetles
the earth and the trembling
the cars that come floating
the buildings come tumbling
the life that sprouts
MW March 2011
标签：Burma, earthquake, Japan, life, quakebook, spring, tsunami, Yunnan
发表在 March 2011, Uncategorized, Welcome! | 2 Comments »
3月 2, 2011
One of the best texts I have read in a long time is Murong Xuecun‘s recent speech in front of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Hongkong. It was a speech he had wanted to give at the occasion of receiving the People’s Literature magazine’s “special action award”. But they didn’t let him speak at the ceremony. Time magazine has the full text, they say (acc.2011-03-02). Please read this text. If you like it, maybe you’ll agree that literature is a very good indicator of the state (of a nation), exactly because you can’t really know what it states. This is true for art in general, or a capacity for innovative culture. You can’t really know what it states, or maybe you’re sure you know, but you can’t really say, or what you can say is only one aspect. You can analyze the structure. You can try to translate it, and still keep the spirit. I haven’t read the original text, haven’t had time to look for it. Is there an original text in Chinese? Did he write it in English? He probably gave the speech in English, because it was at the foreign correspondent’s club. If the text in Time magazine is a translation, I’m pretty sure it is translated well. Yes, maybe there is something universal about it. Maybe Chinese writers have said similar things through the centuries. And millenia. But not only Chinese writers. And I am pretty sure, on the other hand, that this text is a very powerful indicator for the present state (of things). It’s both. Perfect example for Yomi Braester’s Witness Against History. Art has something else, something that goes far beyond History. Or also keeps record more faithfully.
标签：china, literature, politics, speech
发表在 March 2011, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
2月 28, 2011
In 2004/2005 or so in Beijing, my wife and I became friends with some parents of other kids at the local kindergarten. One mother had studied art in Japan and introduced me to blogging. Since early 2008 I have a website at Yahoo Japan. (I had spent a few weeks in Japan in early 1993, on a boat trip from Shanghai.) There is a blog I maintain at Langmates (translation and localization), another one for poems only (almost) and a harmonized teaser, among others. My translations of poems and various signs and banners in China can also be found on websites set up by Sam Brier (2004) and by Charles Laughlin (Ma Lan’s poetry). MCLC (Modern Chinese Literature and Culture), edited by Kirk Denton, has not only spawned an extensive treasure trove of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture sources, but also an Email-list server which has maintained professional and other exchange services for the international Chinese Studies community and beyond, including some very lively discussions. Recently, list members have introduced their blogs, such as Anne Henochowicz, Andrew Field, Jeanne Boden and Charles Laughlin. The initiative was started by Paul Manfredi.
标签：beijing, china, Chinese Studies, culture, life, literature, poetry, politics, Shanghai, travel, writing
发表在 March 2011, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
2月 15, 2011
it’s not quite spring
a bird is singing in a tree
above the snow
the children eat
or clear away for joy and play
all close to home
i didn’t get you anything
when i was small there was this store
and there we would get violets
or tulips something colourful
to bring your mom or grandmother
and that was all.
MW Febr. 2011
标签：all, birds, children, family, flowers, grandmother, home, love, memory, mother, seasons, snow, spring, time, valentine's day
发表在 Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
1月 17, 2011
Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident sentenced to 11 years on Dec.25th 2009 for “inciting subversion“, was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in absentia in Oslo on Dec. 10th, 2010. Liu’s old friend and Independent Chinese PEN co-founder Bei Ling has written a biography of Liu Xiaobo. Bei Ling started off from an essay he wrote in June 1989 in New York, after Liu Xiaobo had been arrested in Beijing in the aftermath of the massacre throughout the city, as People’s Liberation Army troops forced their way through the streets blocked by protesters in the last phase of the demonstrations on Tian’anmen Square. Liu Xiaobo had returned to China from New York and led a hunger strike of intellectuals on the square, supporting the students and Beijing residents in their demands for civil liberties. Bei Ling‘s essay from 1989 was re-published in Chinese in Hongkong and Taiwan in June 2009, and in the German newspaper FAZ on October 12th, 2010, a few days after the Nobel Peace prize announcement from Oslo. Soon after, the German publisher Riva expressed interest in a biography of Liu. Bei Ling had recently written a literary memoir of his years a Beijing underground poet in the 1980s and a literary magazine editor, shuttling between China and foreign countries, in the 1990s. Liu Xiaobo and other old friends such as Liao Yiwu are important figures in Bei Ling’s memoir, to be published by Suhrkamp in Germany this year. So Bei Ling was ready to write his biography of Liu Xiaobo on short notice. It was a crazy idea, but it worked. We worked around the clock in November 2010, and in early December the book hit the shelves. In the first week, from Dec. 9 to 16, it sold 2500 volumes, according to the publisher. Since then, Bei Ling’s biography of Liu Xiaobo has been reviewed in many newspapers, magazines, on TV and radio stations etc. throughout Germany and in neighbouring countries. This month (January 2011), according to the publisher, the book has started to appear on the Spiegel magazine’s bestseller list, the standard list in the German-speaking realm. On January 11th, 2011, a symposion with Bei Ling, Prof. Weigelin-Schwiedrzik， Prof. Findeisen, Prof. Zhu Jiaming, Dr. Felix Wemheuer and others was held at Vienna University and met with great interest among students and teachers from various faculties. See here …
Liu Xiaobo biographer Bei Ling at Vienna University on Jan. 11th, 2011. Photo: Angelika Burgsteiner
标签：11 years, censorship, china, Chinese Studies, civil rights, civil society, freedom of speech, intellectuals, literature, Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace prize, politics, prison, prisoners of conscience, reporting, subversion, Vienna University, writing
发表在 January 2011, Translations, Uncategorized, Welcome! | 5 Comments »
8月 17, 2009
Es lohnt sich nicht zu leben – Yang Ze (1990)
Es lohnt sich nicht zu leben.
Früher, vielleicht
hatte ich eine böse Ahnung.
Früher, vor dem jungen bewegenden,
bewegenden Tier auf deiner Haut,
vor dem Papayabaum im Dunkel
des in seiner Höhe perfekten Balkons und der Sterne,
und vor der Nacht – der Nacht der Zauberflöte
und des Einhorns, die allen Liebenden angehört –
wenn die Zauberflöte schrillt,
schrillt durch die Zimmer, dann wird sie kühler,
dann kehrt das Horn zu jenem letzten,
zu jenem ersten Morgengrauen der Steppe zurück …
Es lohnt sich nicht zu leben.
Früher hatte ich schon diese Ahnung.
Früher war ich noch nicht relativ
und du warst noch nicht absolut – ehrlicher,
tapferer Liebesinstinkt wilder Hasen
und dann dieses (hochgradig zweifelhafte)
widersprüchliche Temperament
mit der Tendenz zum Gefühlvollen,
mit der Tendenz zum Tempo,
mit der Tendenz von der Illusion her
zu ein wenig Besessenheit und Wahn –
Es lohnt sich gar nicht zu leben.
Früher, noch vor den Büchern,
vor der Musik und der Malerei – ganz am Anfang
hatte ich schon eine dunkle Ahnung.
Grünes Licht und blaue Rosen,
Joints und Zen.
Ich träumte von dir: Mofa-Mädchen
macht einen kopflosen Reiter auf einem Bild nach,
mit deiner dichten schwarzen Mähne rast du
ins Morgengrauen über der Steppe …
Wenn die Zauberflöte schrillt
bis sie kalt geworden ist –
Liebe und Tod sind ein Zaubertrank, zweifellos
wie der Sonnenuntergang auf dem Meer
ewig wie Gewalt und Wahn …
Es lohnt sich nicht zu leben.
Bevor die laufende Elefantenherde am Ufer,
das Meer und der ferne Himmel zusammen alt werden:
düster leckt das junge Tier seine Wunden,
nur um deine früheste und deine letzte
Sentimentalität zu bewahren,
bin ich bereit, den Griff für die Klinge zu halten,
als ein unermüdlicher,
tausendmal besiegter Krieger
wie ein Murmeltier, so will ich
gerne fleißig weiterleben,
obwohl vor deinen Illusionen,
vor meinem Nichts, vor deiner
Höhle, und meinem Licht –
obwohl es sich nicht lohnt zu leben.
MW August 2009 übersetzt
人生不值得活的 – 楊澤 (1990)
人生不值得活的。
稍早，也許
我就有了不祥的預感。
稍早，早於你幼獸般
動人動人的花紋，早於
暗中的木瓜樹
高度完美的陽台與星
早於夜晚–屬於所有情人的
魔笛和獨角獸底夜晚;
當魔笛吹徹
魔笛終因吹徹小樓而轉涼
號角重返那最後
與最初的草原黎明……
人生不值得活的。
稍早，我便有了如此預感。
稍早，早於我的相對
你的絕封―野兔般
誠實勇敢底愛欲本能
還有那(讓人在在難以釋懷)
駁雜不純的氣質
傾向感傷，傾向速度
也傾向，因夢幻而來的
一點點耽溺與瘋狂
人生並不值得活的。
更早，早於書本
音樂及繪畫―一開始
我就有了暗暗的預感。
綠光和藍薔薇
大麻煙捲與禪
我夢見你:電單車的女子
模仿固畫裡的無頭騎士
拎著一頭黑濃長髮，朝
草原黎明疾馳離去……
當魔笛再度吹徹
魔笛終因吹徹而轉寒
愛與死的迷藥無非是
大海落日般–
一種永恒的暴力
與瘋狂……
人生不值得活的。
在岸上奔跑的象群
大海及遠天相偕老去前:
暗舔傷口的幼獸哪
只為了維護
你最早和最終的感傷主義
我願意持柄為鋒
作一名不懈的
千敗劍客
土撥鼠般，我將
努力去生活
雖然，早於你的夢幻
我的虛無;早於
你的洞穴，我的光明―
雖然，人生並不值得活的。
标签：life, martial law, Nietzsche, poetry, suicide, taiwan
发表在 Translations, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
9月 29, 2008
tag
gestern war ein schoener tag
endlich wieder einmal warm
wolkenlos die meiste zeit
gestern war auch wieder wahl
das war leider nicht so schoen
vor zwei jahren war es gut
schwatzblau war nicht mehr gefragt
schwatzorange war auch ein kas
schwatzorange war auch ein schas
vor zwei jahren war das klar
erster war die spoe
oevp war auch nicht schlecht
gruene waren ganz ok
gestern war ein schoener tag
MW 29. September 2008
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yesterday
yesterday the day was fine
finally the sun was out
there were hardly any clouds
yesterday we had to vote
yesterday was not so good
it was fine two years ago
right-wing government was out
that was clear two years ago
yesterday the day was fine
there were hardly any clouds
MW Sept. 29th, 2008
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
yesterday the right-wing parties gained a lot in austria.
they have 29 percent together now.
really right-wing, anti-foreigners, "austrians first" in every ad.
austrians ueber alles?
yeah, most of the time we’re laughable, thank god.
not in the news at all internationally, i guess.
they had elections in bavaria and in belarus too
标签：all, election, international news, life, nostalgia, poetry, politics, seasons, weather
发表在 Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
2月 27, 2008
Welcome to WordPress.com. I am in Beijing. Maybe you need a proxy server to view this in China. This blog is for posting poetry in English and German, and translations from Chinese. Just my own, for now. See you!
标签：poetry
发表在 Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
