My new translation of Nakahara Chuya's "Poems of the Goat" is finally being released, and as a bilingual edition! For more information, please visit: https://t.co/8hDzZLTTWO
And please help spread the word if you're a fan of #中原中也, #Japan, or #poetry
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was spotted trying some of Beijing’s delicacies. He was seen at No. 69 Fangzhuanchang Noodles, tucking into a bowl of “zhajiangmian” — a Beijing specialty that features noodles covered in a thick soybean-paste sauce mixed with vegetables and meat.
I’ve been translating Japanese poetry for 25+ years. Robert Frost’s line, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation,” is funny, true, and paradoxically the aesthetic imperative that is possible and also introduces a new means of seeing.
For over a century people have been accurately translating the Japanese language into English. We’ve done it for literature, business deals, government treaties, and all manner of things.
Now a bunch of crappy lazy translators claim it’s impossible. As I’ve mentioned before my best friend from childhood has been doing this for 50 years. He informs me that yes there are words in Japan that cannot be translated into English with a single word. But you can still translate them. Just takes a fee more words.
Finally, with the New Year holiday I have time and quiet enough to start reading from my wonderful Christmas haul. Grabbed Olga Tokarczuk’s first—gripping so far, and an excellent translation by Lloyd-Jones. Seems to really capture tone, which is always the hardest part.
That Sacks came to be a professor at Columbia & NYU and the most famous neurologist in the world makes you wonder just how common it is for socially pleasing fabrications to be laundered through academic prestige networks.
Recently read poet Jay Hopler’s Still Life, written after his terminal cancer diagnosis. Far from being somber, it’s a life-affirming, irreverent testament to the moments and things that matter most, including family. I also recommend his 2016 The Abridged History of Rainfall.
So few excel at both poetry and prose. Michael Ondaatje (of The English Patient fame) immediately comes to mind. Ben Lerner is another to remember. The Lights probes what dwells beyond our conscious knowing, illuminating it however briefly. Such striking, intelligent art.
I get a small but helpful payment every month for my Nakahara Chuya translation… but if you could purchase from the website (if you’re interested), rather than Amazon, that’s even more helpful! Thank you. https://t.co/8hDzZLTTWO
I’ve been too busy to bother posting these last few months but never too busy to read. My favorite book of poetry over this period was Brandon Som’s Tripas: Poems, which explores his Mexican and Chinese heritage. Compelling subject matter presented through engaging technique.
@xlorentzen Just read your LRB review and, yes, I think I’ll slip my unread copy into the Little Free Library box down the street and slink away… Too many other tomes to read.
@belafleckbanjo Check out the acclaimed Vietnamese musician Vanessa Vo. She does everything from classical/chamber to hip-hop and world music. She’s done some great work with Kronos Quartet. You two would make an interesting string combo.