Posts Tagged ‘Britain’
9月 10, 2022

THE QUEEN IS GONE
She was my parents’ and grandparents’ world,
she had it cushier than all of them.
My son knows Freddie Mercury,
not sure if he knows her,
hasn’t been to Britain.
I went with my folks when I was young.
My dad was in England as an exchange student,
when he was young, maybe twelve.
We visited Marjory,
dad was at her place.
Marjory almost like the prime minister,
but a much nicer person.
We went to England and Wales
in a small car.
I even got to swim in the sea
somewhere in Wales on the coast,
no-one was there.
Beautiful, though cold of course.
Queen Mother was still around,
not in Wales at the time.
Freddie Mercury and friends,
I saw them in Vienna,
my first big concert
aside from classical music.
Boy, that was a long time ago.
MW September 2022

标签:age, Britain, cold, empire, Europe, family, father, friends, history, large, memory, music, name, names, people, person, politics, queens, school, sea, small, society, time, Wales, words, youth
发表在 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s, 2022, 20th century, 21st century, Middle Ages, poetry, September 2022 | Leave a Comment »
5月 3, 2021

Xu Jiang
TRIVIALITIES: LONG AND SHORT
The France I used to like has disappeared,
Paris is thronged with people from places
very far away from the outskirts of Gaul.
The America I used to love
has gone back into the movies.
Many people who live there now are villains from fiction,
Robert Penn Warren, William Styron, Faulkner and Steinbeck.
Hemingway characters have been condensed into fairytales.
And those bumpkins ridiculed by Thomas Wolfe,
they would like to hold the world by its throat as a matter of course.
I am thinking of Ellery Queen, Bogart, Jack Nicholson
and all sorts of Pacino,
standing between shadows and light, DeNiro people.
I am not sure whether the lives
described by the great Annie Proulx and Ring Lardner
have really existed.
If it really was like that,
then Philip Roth and Salinger, those two masters,
they didn’t have it any easier than Bernard Malamud or myself.
The Britain I liked and also hated,
the world of Dickens, Hardy, Emily Brontë, Evelyn Waugh,
also the world of Guy Maddin.
Chaplin and Hitchcock, they came from England,
no matter if they thought of it as their grandmother‘s home or whatever,
that kind of world is gone, no-one can go back to it.
Italy, of Umberto Saba’s bitter poetry,
of Tornatore’s splendor,
Fellini’s ghosts and deities,
a world has gone under but another world has not risen.
Poor Barcelona, poor Spain,
aside from Messi, what else can you make me think of?
The bullets shot at Lorca?
Thick smoke covers Cervantes and Unamuno.
But you are singing, saying what does this have to do with you?
As you go north, farther north, everywhere north in the world
you’ll run into people drinking forever.
They are crawling out of Ibsen, Hamsun, Dostoyevski’s White Nights,
Crawling all the way till today until half of what Solzhenitsyn described is gone.
I really don’t know if this is a good thing or not.
Neither Tolstoy nor Maupassant nor the wisdom of Martin du Gard can advise me.
Old Hesse stares into the distance with his Steppenwolf eyes and doesn’t speak.
At this time everyone can understand a little why Stefan Zweig and Richard Strauss broke down.
Bukowski didn’t care about any of this, he drank a bottle and went on writing.
Pasternak screwed up his horse face and stared at a row of trees in the snow.
Wandering souls drive their chariots, circling and circling,
soundlessly crushing expectations and fear;
crushing Nietzsche and Stephen Hawking, actually
all of this can be seen to belong to Stephen King.
But it’s ok,
just be glad it’s still ok,
food is eaten, television’s turned on.
Ineffective dreams are about to start,
about to start again.
You will wake up, we will wake up,
from utter sadness, wake up to enter
indefinite nights, poisoned days.
Yes, everything definitely indefinite.
Let us clear away this forest,
let us see the distance in the past.
Not so we can see the past,
but so we can see once more
the distance we longed for.
Translated by MW on May 2nd, 2021






伊沙推荐:徐氏现代感怀赋体诗,是徐江在一首决胜争奖时惯用的杀手锏,确实能够展示一名诗人的综合修养与实力,但在我的评判中并非次次都奏效,取决于真知灼见与书生义气所占比例之多寡,当然是前者百分比越高就越好。本诗不算高也不算低,所以入典推荐但不染指荣誉,好在作者新近刚获李白诗歌奖新世纪中国十大诗人奖并继续保持满额。

Calligraphy by Huang Kaibing
况禹点评《新诗典》徐江《杂事诗·长短调》:本诗的缘起当然是横行全球的新冠疫情,主题则是这一疫情下文明的崩溃与混乱,以及人所应持有的正确反应。属于作者当下题材的作品中,最重要的主题之一。

Calligraphy by Huang Kaibing
黎雪梅读《新世纪诗典》之徐江《杂事诗.长短调:》这是一首关于疫情的诗歌,在诗中你能感受到各种秩序的混乱,无论欧洲还是美洲;你还能遇见很多熟悉的作家及诗人的名字,仿佛跨越时空,他们都站在你的面前,与你探讨自由、正义和死亡等有关人类存在最基本的问题,也许每个人的观点不同,但人们还是看见了远方的曙光,这正是人类的希望所在。
黄开兵:密集恐惧症——抄了两个多小时!孩子都快看完两部电影了。推荐词部分特意用了朱墨书写,避免因为密集而难以辨别。视觉效果不错!

Calligraphy by Huang Kaibing
黄平子读徐江《杂事诗·长短调》
——《新世纪诗典》3682
黄平子读诗:百度了一下“长短调”,由于该词涉及到音乐、摄影等知识,徐江老师又将其运用到诗里,我还是搞不大明白。不懂不装懂,这是我的读诗原则。猜一下:该诗叫长短调,大约是前后两节写了不同的内容,用了不同的手法吧。从“我喜欢的法国消失了”到“所有这些你也都可以看成是斯蒂芬·金”是诗的第一小节。诗人从法国开始,先后写到美国、英国、意大利、巴萨罗那、西班牙、北方、更北方、全世界所有的北方。诗人通过追忆那些逝去的大师们,最终发出感慨:“一个世界沉没了可另一个世界并没有升起来”。从“不过还好”到“我们过去向往的远方”是诗的第二小节。诗人由回忆回到现实:“你将醒来我们将醒来/从确切的悲伤中醒来”。过去很美好,现在不尽人意,不过将来肯定会更好。徐江不是悲观论者,这一点,诗写得很清楚:“不是为了看到过去/而是为了重新看一看/我们过去向往的远方”。第一小节偏叙事,第二小节偏议论。从百度关于长短调的定义来看,第一小节应该属于短调,第二小节属于长调。不知道有没有搞错。好几个诗人都说这是一首疫情诗。我觉得不是。《长短调》缅怀的是逝去的大师和过去璀璨的文明:“那样的世界今天的人现在都回不去了”。
2021年5月2日21记47分

Calligraphy by Huang Kaibing
马金山|读徐江的诗《杂事诗·长短调》的十一条:
1、文字燃烧思想,现实成就诗史;
2、当代性,即先锋性。活出文明,诗写人生;
3、徐江,毕业于北京师范大学中文系。1991年创办《葵》。著有诗集《黄昏前说起天才》《徐江的诗》《花火》《雾》《杂事诗》《我斜视》、诗学论著《这就是诗》《现代诗物语》等二十余种。主持编选《1991年以来的中国诗歌》《给孩子们的诗》。五次荣获新世纪诗典“李白诗歌奖”。曾获首届亚洲诗人奖、《世界诗人》2006年度国际最佳诗人;
4、徐江的诗,尤其是短制系列作品,是极其少有的值得我整理打印出来一读再读的,其作品给我最多的意义在于丰富与智慧,并且文字的言外之意,何等绚烂、精彩;
5、《杂事诗》系列,对于诗人徐江来说,应该是尤为重要的,不仅如此,对于新世纪的诗坛来说,何偿不是一部重要的作品呢,既有个人化的印记,还有时代的呼吸与脉搏,庞大而丰富;
6、本诗写作的背景,毫不回避的是现实与疫情,不只如此,还有个体的情感与生活,除此之外,还有审视的眼光和内在的格局,均对世界物象的触感具有智性的广度与深度;
7、诗里行间,不仅有细小的颗粒,还有辽阔的世界性建构,在纹理细腻的情感排列中,既有清晰的空间,还有现代的文明,锋利而又鲜活;
8、浓厚与庞杂,是这个世界的秩序,还是我读这首史诗的深切感受,几乎每一节,都是芬芳,都是灿烂与文明,这是很多作品所不具备的,而此诗有,想要的一切;
9、未来可期,这是本诗给予我提供的精神价值,传递健康积极的生活态度与思想观念,也是此诗给予的力量;
10、本诗给予诗人的启示:“伟大的诗,源于伟大的时代,而这个时代,何尝不是伟大的历史时期呢”;
11、时代之诗,文化之诗,文明史记。
标签:actors, america, Britain, canada, characters, classics, culture, 美国 America, director, distance, drinking, england, Europe, films, France, history, imagination, intellect, Italy, language, languages, life, literature, memory, novels, NPC, people, poetry, poets, ruminations, russia, Russians, soul, souls, soviet union, Soviets, Spain, spirit, spirits, words, world, writers, Xu Jiang, 徐江, 新世纪詩典
发表在 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 19th century, 2000s, 2010s, 2019, 2020, 2021, 20th century, 21st century, Antique times, April 2021, Byzantinian times, February 2021, January 2021, June, March 2021, May, May 2021, Middle Ages, NPC, poetry, Prehistoric times, Translations, 徐江, 新世纪诗典 | Leave a Comment »
12月 1, 2020

Lianxin Er
ALL ROADS LEAD TO POETRY
Chris Boobier,
a young British guy
at the Remembrance Day ceremony in the British Embassy in Beijing
loudly recites Du Fu’s Spring View
11/10/20
Translated by MW, Dec. 1st, 2020


标签:Britain, Du Fu, embassy, Europe, 莲心儿, 蓮心兒, Great Britain, history, Lianxin Er, Lianxin'er, memory, NPC, people, poetry, remembrance, time, tradition, war, 新世纪詩典
发表在 2020, 20th century, 21st century, December 2020, Middle Ages, NOVEMBER 2020, NPC, poetry, Tang Dynasty, Translations, 新世纪诗典 | Leave a Comment »
12月 14, 2019

GET FUCKIT DONE
Are they really so stupid?
Welcome, Scotland.
MW December 2019

标签:Britain, election, Europe, people, poetry, propaganda, responsibility, Scotland, society, vote
发表在 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 20th century, 21st century, December 2019, Middle Ages, poetry, PR, Stone Age, Uncategorized, Warring States, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
12月 3, 2019

2 CENTS
Vote for Corbyn,
he is the lesser evil
at least
for the many.
The helpless half
The poorer half
The stupider half
The slyer half
That‘s four quarters already
of Germany
or the EU
maybe they are
somewhat like the people
who vote for Trump
or any old chump
who acts brazen enough.
MW November 2019


标签:Britain, economy, elections, Europe, evil, history, memory, money, people, politics, society
发表在 2010s, 2019, 2020, 20th century, 21st century, December 2019, Middle Ages, November 2019, poetry, PR, Uncategorized, Warring States | Leave a Comment »
11月 10, 2019

GORBACHEV
Gorbachev is a moral voice.
The leader of an empire is
a moral voice for most of his life.
He tried everything to preserve
the empire he undermined.
He is a Communist.
And so
Gorbachev is a moral voice
for the world.
Reagan was a supportive
Cowboy actor.
Very supportive
for speculators
and Contra terrorists
and Kissinger’s and Thatcher’s
and the Chicago Boys’ Pinochet.
Very supportive.
Gorbachev is for democracy
and world peace.
Could he be a leader
of the European Union,
could he be a good one?
He’s too old anyway.
But it would have to include Russia
to say nothing of Britain
of course
and so on.
Wish we all
all people affected
would have a say.
P.S.: My wife
thinks this is hogwash.
She doesn’t like my political poems.
What do you think?
I know I have to write a lot
and translate and read
and do a lot of other stuff
to write some good ones.
So there.
MW November 2019
P.P.S.: Here are some great photos and a short film from the GDR: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/089938-000-A/radfahrer/
And here is Gorbachev’s Pizza Hut commercial from 1997. Click on the image to read a hilarious Foreign Policy article and watch the commercial.

标签:america, Britain, Europe, Gorbachev, history, language, life, memory, poetry, politics, russia, south america, world
发表在 1980s, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1990s, 1991, 2000s, 2010s, 2019, 20th century, 21st century, Middle Ages, November 2019, poetry, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
6月 14, 2017

FIRE
there is a tower on fire in london
full of ordinary people
government housing
the american government
is preoccupied
every day
with president embarrassement
there is a looming election in austria
just like last year
the eu is not happy
italy and greece
have many refugees
some eastern countries
including austria
refuse to take any
austria has taken many
there has been solidarity
among the people
but also much cowardice
in government
cowardice and cunning
unscrupulousness
take your pick
the fire’s still burning
MW June 2017
标签:austria, Britain, catastrophy, country, cowardice, elections, embarrassment, england, EU, Europe, fire, greece, Italy, London, memory, news, poetry, politics, preoccupation, refugees, solidarity, US
发表在 2017, June 2017, poetry, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
3月 29, 2017

MAYDAY
teresa really does look like trump
now I sit down and sign
because I have promised
we can be as pathetic
as anyone
MW March 29th, 2017

标签:Britain, Europe, government, poetry, politics, vote
发表在 2016, 2017, poetry, PR, prose, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
12月 28, 2016

HAPPY 2017!
2016 was actually not bad.
We won Van der Bellen.
It was a long match.
The referee made it last the whole year.
We stayed in our league.
Which regional league is that exactly?
There are so many, aren’t there?
They lost some big matches in other leagues.
There’ll be all sorts of fall-out all over.
Anyway, we won.
Happy New Year!
MW December 2016
祝大家2017年好!
2016年其實不那麽糟糕。
我们赢了總統大選
總共打了一年,
一直拖延因為裁判的决定,
最後留在原来的级别。
到底什麽地區的级别?
在其他地區
别人輸了他們的比赛,
到處都會有影響。
不過我們赢了!
從奥地利祝新年好!
2016.12.31
New books out from FabrikTransit: www.fabriktransit.net

New Reading on January 17!
Lesung von Martin Winter 維馬丁朗誦會
DI, 17. Jänner 2017, 18 Uhr
PEN-Club, Bankgasse 8, 1010 Wien
Siehe http://www.fabriktransit.net/index.php/events/97-martin-winter-im-pen-club und
http://penclub.at/termine/


标签:Africa, america, Americas, anti-fascist, asia, Australia, austria, between, Britain, china, elections, EU, Europe, football, happiness, history, memory, New Zealand, people, poetry, politics, president, refugees, season, soccer, Southeast Asia, sports, taiwan, victory, vote, war, we, world, year
发表在 2016, April 2016, August 2015, August 2016, December 2015, December 2016, February 2016, January 2016, January 2017, July 2016, June 2016, March 2016, May 2016, November 2016, October 2015, October 2016, poetry, September 2015, September 2016, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
12月 22, 2016

NO SHIT
the italian foreign minister says
on brettscheid square in berlin
memorial church right where the lorry
he says the suspect had been in prison
in tunisia and in italy
also in germany
normally it works out much better
in italy
normally they are good at deporting
what a relief
british foreign ministry in london
720 laptops went missing
unusually high number they say
no shit
MW December 2016
NO SHIT
der italienische außenminister sagt
auf dem brettscheidplatz in berlin
gedächtniskirche dort wo der lastwagen
er sagt der verdächtige war im gefängnis
in tunesien und in italien
und auch in deutschland
normalerweise funktioniere es besser
in italien
normalerweise schiebe man besser ab
was für ein trost
im britischen verteidigungsministerium in london
sind heuer 720 laptops verschwunden
eine ungewöhnlich hohe zahl heißt es
no shit
MW Dezember 2016
标签:berlin, Britain, church, defence, deportation, foreign, Germany, history, Italy, jail, laptop, memory, ministry, officials, police, politics, shit, square, suspect, terror, truck
发表在 2016, December 2016, poetry, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
9月 23, 2016

TRIUMPH
I am going to feel the sun
I am going to be number one
on this run
to feel the sun
I am going to be number one
I am going to feel the wind
I am not going to be extinct
on this stint
to feel the wind
I am going to feel the wind
I am going to feel the rain
I am going to feel it again
and again
I am going to feel the rain
I am going to feel my life
I am going to feel my wife
like Lou Reed
I am going to feel my life
I am going to be rife
I am going to go to sleep
I am going to go to sleep
in a heap
It will be steep
I am going to go to sleep
MW September 2016

BRITAIN AFTER THE VOTE
recently britain
had a big vote.
the vote was about remaining or leaving.
the government thought
most people would vote
to remain in britain.
but most people didn’t.
the leave britain campaign
was victorious.
now there are not many people
in britain.
MW September 2016

标签:Britain, campaign, election, Europe, language, life, Lou Reed, meaning, people, poetry, politics, rain, sleep, sun, triumph, victory, vote, wind
发表在 2016, poetry, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
7月 8, 2016

photo by David Howard
3 WALES IN AUSTRIA
3 whales in austria
wales played much better
in german whale sounds the same as election
any choice
president is like english
trump started to smell long ago
in 2000 there was a problem
but
no-one had three votes in half a year.
the na in nazi means nation
national socialism
democratic whales are still good
the best whale is still socialism
but in brexit times
we have ever more ranking
president wales
MW July 2016
《奥地利三条鲸鱼》
奥地利第三次選鲸鱼
德语选举和鲸鱼发音一样
而總統像英语。
美国共和党候选人已经有味道
他们2000年选举有问题
也不是半年選三次。
纳粹的纳德语是民族
纳粹的翠德语是社会主义。
无论如何要民主鲸鱼。
社会主义永远是最好的鲸鱼。
但英国离开欧盟的危机之下
奥地利三次鲸鱼腥味
愈来愈濃。
2016/7
3. WAL
der 3. wal
des österreichischen bundespräsidenten
schmeckt wie der 1. wal
lasst die viecher in ruhe
ich mag sie nicht
oft auf dem tisch
MW Juli 2016
《三等》
奥地利三次選總統
奥地利三等選總統
一等国家
不容忍纳粹
2016.7.1
3. WAHL
österreich ist 3. wahl
1. wahl wären länder
die nazis nicht tolerieren
MW 1. Juli 2016


photo by David Howard
标签:3rd rate, animals, austria, Britain, country, democracy, EU, Europe, football, history, language, memory, nation, poetry, politics, president, rank, smell, soccer, socialism, sound, speech, spelling, vote, Wales, whales
发表在 1933, 1934, 1938, 1945, 1955, 1970s, 1980s, 1989, 1990s, April 2016, August 2016, July 2016, June 2016, May 2008, October 2016, poetry, September 2016, Translations, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
7月 4, 2016

via Rhys Goode and Didi Kirsten Tatlow
I guess this chart shows very clearly what a huge mistake it was for Cameron to play the tough Eu-sceptic all these years, promising this utterly stupid referendum. There are many frustrated people in the UK. There are many frustrated people in the US and in many other countries. One big factor is the so-called neo-liberal economy, unleashed by Thatcher and Reagan. The rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders addresses this fundamental problem. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair thought there could be a Third Way. Did it work? In some ways, for a while. Bush etc. wrecked very much, Blair and much of Europe helped them. Then came Obama. Nobels for him and the EU. For peace? Yes, the EU on the whole has been a factor for peace and understanding and prosperity for decades, despite all the faults. But the EU failed to make peace in the 1990s in Yugoslavia. The US stepped in, finally. The whole thing is still very shameful and problematic in retrospect. And the EU was not helping. So the EU is not able to make or bring peace when war breaks out. Neither is Obama. And neither the EU on the whole nor Obama nor Hillary will address what U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders addresses. Trump addresses much the same frustrations. With lies. Cameron and Boris Johnson etc. addressed the frustrations with blaming the EU. With lies and rumours. So what will happen? We in Austria are having another run-off vote soon. The third vote on a new president in six or seven months. Let’s hope Alexander Van der Bellen wins again, or Austria will be worse than Hungary. I guess two factors might help van der Alexander Van der Bellen: Hillary Clinton and everyone not completely benighted together will be fighting Trump in September. Trump and the FPÖ are the same thing, only the latter is worse. We have not addressed this enough here in Austria, but we will have to. The second factor against the shameless liars is the prevailing feeling of Brexit regret.

via Rhys Goode
标签:Alexander van der Bellen, america, austria, Balkans, Bernie Sanders, Blair, Britain, bush, Clinton, economy, elections, Europe, fear, frustration, Hillary Clinton, history, hungary, information, lies, memory, Obama, people, perceptions, politics, poor, Reagan, refugees, rich, solidarity, terror, Thatcher, war, work, yugoslavia
发表在 July 2016, June 2016, prose, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »
6月 25, 2016

Photo by David Howard
BREXIT III
in 1996
austria voted to join the eu
i was either in china
or in romania
or in between
there was war
in yugoslavia
most of 1994
i taught german
to bosnian refugees
the eu did nothing
to stop the war
they said the economy
would be much better
one common currency
each person benefits
I didn’t believe them
but smallmindedness
there was a hope against smallmindedness
two thirds voted for the eu
yesterday i read in a paper
a chinese paper printed in europe
in bosnia they still hope to join
we know the eu is not perfect
but for bosnia there’s no other way
they say
what did austria do
close the balkan route
keep refugees out
some people say
austria encouraged them
to split up yugoslavia
in 1990
anyway is there another way
against orban
in every country or worse
is this a poem
or just thinking out loud
i don’t know
what will change
the eu is still rich
on the whole
it was a project
to help poorer countries
i don’t know if that’s true
fuck the tories
fuck thatcher
let it all unravel
i don’t know
i guess no-one knows
somehow europe
should stand together
somehow we say we
hope for each other
bosnia
greece
latvia
portugal
everyone scraping
hope 4 our children
europe
asia
africa
world
MW June 2016
BREXIT IV
it‘s a small mind after all
it’s a small mind after all
…..
MW June 2016

标签:austria, Bosnia, Britain, china, currency, election, Europe, faith, fear, greece, history, language, Latvia, memory, mind, money, paper, people, politics, Portugal, romania, small, solidarity, vote, war, world, yugoslavia
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6月 23, 2016

© Ronnie Niedermeyer, rn.co.at
BREXIT
everything is halted
they say
at least for a day
every is halting
every english
if britain takes leavening
everything is halting
if english or scottish or welsh
and northern something
everything has been halting
for refugees
for workers
for us
for eu
4 eme
4 everyone
with cream and sugar
allergic reactions
declared beforehand
as prescribed by brussels
everyone’s sproutin’
their leavenings
we had a vote here last month
green or brown
for president
there is a blue flower
it is beautiful
but in austrian german
in effect it means shit
reeking nazis
be glad you don’t have to have
such a vote
MW June 2016
BREXIT (II)
the moon
is an american football
MW June 2016
标签:austria, Britain, brown, economy, election, Europe, excrement, flowers, food, football, Great, green, history, Irish, language, memory, moon, party, poetry, politics, president, reaction, refugees, Scottish, soccer, vote, Welsh, work
发表在 June 2016, poetry, Uncategorized, Welcome! | Leave a Comment »