Oct 15 2007
Poetry recital 诗歌朗诵
Chinese Speaking Writers Abroad 海外华文作家笔会（国际笔会分会）had poetry recital, in celebration of Zhang Er’s editorial debut Another Kind of Nation: an Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Poetry in both Chinese and English. She talked about the difficult of finding appropriated English translators for each Chinese poem, and also lack of funding.
I think it’s very different animal in terms of translating poems than non fictions or novels. Poetry, perhaps best left to be read in its original form/language. Poetry is not a money making proposition. Remember back in 2002 when Ruth Lilly bequested $100m to Poetry magazine, it was a huge deal. Michael Lewis once quibbled with one of poets at a gathering over pay disparity, when he admitted that he gets $30k for a cover story on the NYT magazine, ‘ you do/write what you love to do/write ..’ Right on.
There are more poets away from China than 1.5b that live in China .. said one poet. When someone tried to correct him that the population is 1.3. He replied, ‘there are more than they’re willing to admit’, which put the figure at 1.5b. Wow.
It’s funny seeing or actually hearing Cantonese speakers recite poems. I encountered this while attending high school in HK. It just doesn’t feel right. Cantonese is a very cute, vivid conversational dialect, not particularly suitable for poem, IMHO anyway. I can’t say that I’m surprised to see this many or few die hard poetry loving people/poets show up at the reading. I went because I love classic Chinese poetry from Tang Dynasty, and Mao’s; and also b/c Frank is hosting it; and perhaps secretively, I’d like to share Popo’s?
Ellen was there too. In the lobby, I ran into Xiao Hui who’s on her way out of doctor’s office with daughter bouncing around. The last time I ran into her was with Ellen too, at Northern Manor, how odd. She was with Christie. Although she might have put on some weight, Xiao Hui still looks like a doll. Is it a rule of thumb that every time you see a girl, you tell her that she lost weight? That’s what people, male or female always say to me, which isn’t true at all. First of all, I don’t lose weight. Secondly I don’t care if I lose or gain weight. Xiao Hui immediately compliment that I look good and lost weight. Then went on to complain that she gained weight, :) Her daughter has grew a lot, very pretty and out going.