Posts Tagged ‘Maghiel van Crevel’

IN A PAWNSHOP OF PAIN – On the poet Nan Ren 南人

2月 27, 2024

Dear poetry fans,
On Febr. 10, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published my article on the poet Nan Ren 南人 (scroll to p. 5; there are a few minor mistakes in the German article, I couldn’t see the final print version before it came out: the first poem has one line added; and Shaanxi became Shanxi). Last week I decided to write a version in English for the MCLC Resource Center.

This is a newspaper article, so there are no footnotes. The reference to Maghiel van Crevel was not included in the German print version. I have thought about many names of poets I should have mentioned, and other things I should have said. Anyway, such a publication in a major daily in Germany is a big success, a big deal in international exposure for current Chinese poetry. I hope you like it. Please comment, thank you!

Sources: Here is a link to the poems in the article including the original Chinese versions. And here are some of the paintings by Huang Li 黄丽 that accompany the poems in the book. The pictures look much better in the book. Nan Ren has sent them to me in high resolution. He and Xiron have authorized me to look for publishers in Europe and beyond. I hope to find publishers for the German speaking and for the English speaking Pawnshop. Here is a link to about 50 poems in Chinese with some translations in English or German. Here is a link to the announcement from last May, when the book was published in China. The publisher is Xiron Poetry Club, 磨铁读诗会. Xiron is a big publisher, led by the poet Shen Haobo 沈浩波. But Xiron is private and has to purchase an ISBN for each book from a state publisher. The state publisher is on the cover, Xiron Poetry Club is on the first page. Both have to avoid publishing anything that could get the book pulled or forbidden.

 

IN A PAWNSHOP OF PAIN

Nan Ren is a legend. He doesn’t like to say when he was born. 1970, found that somewhere. Not important. Nan Ren is a pen name. The nán of ‘south‘ and the rén of ‘person‘. What does that mean? His family comes from the south, somewhere south of the Long River, the Yangtse. Nanren, southern people, was the lowest stratum in the Mongol empire. The Mongols captured the south last, all the better jobs had been assigned to other people already. Almost every poet writing in Chinese has a pen name. People have more than one name in Chinese, even non-artists. It was that way in Confucius‘ times. And in the occident, people also had several names, at least prominent people, all the way from Homer.

More …

 

POETRY REPORT

2月 25, 2017

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POETRY

poetry
is impo
rtant
truth
is impo
tent
or is it
or are you

MW February 2017

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REPORT

every report
every detailed incisive report
kind that makes powerful people squirm
is just as important
as any art
any poem
any church, temple
that makes you pause
think
feel
every report

MW February 2017

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AUDIENCE AND MASSACRE

6月 4, 2016
Calligraphy by Chen Shih-hsian

Calligraphy by Chen Shih-hsian

IS THERE A GOOD WAY TO (TRANSLATE) POETRY?

Is there a way?
Is there a good way?
Is there a good way to poetry?
Is there a good way to translate poetry?
Why not?
Depends on the poetry.
The source poetry,
the target poetry.
The audience
and the massacre.
Maghiel van Crevel’s translation
of Han Dong’s Big Wild Goose Pagoda
is perfect.
Both pagodas are perfect.
Maybe the small one
retains more of the flavor
of Xi’an 20 or 30 years ago.
Haven’t been to the small one in many years.
Nicky Harman’s translation quoted by Xujun Eberlein
in the LA Review of Books
should have no quite in my opinion
only quiet.
Otherwise it is perfect.
Is there a good way to translate poetry?
Into what?
Mashed potatoes?
If I’m not a poet
in target poetry
– how many shots for a dollar?
If the person in charge
doesn’t produce competent targets
why do they buy them?
Is there a way?
Is there a good way to poetry?
Depends on the poetry.
The source poetry, the target poetry.
The audience and the massacre.

June 3rd, 2016
P.S.: Pls refer to Shen Haobo’s REPUBLIC. Maybe his best poem. Maybe my best translation.

Thank you,
Martin