Book presentation of “Chinese Poetry and Translation: Rights and Wrongs”

Coupling poetry with translation will trigger claims the size of office blocks (definitely not quoting Robert Frost here, but you get the idea). Add Chinese to the mix, and things get even better. Does the Chinese script make a difference? Are texts recited at the imperial court in antiquity and texts posted on migrant worker blogs today even on the same planet, beyond the fact that both are called poetry? If the poet you are translating is under house arrest, should this affect your word choice? But then what if she’s released? This talk will introduce a new book that stretches from queer-feminist engagement with China’s newest poetry to philological reflection on its oldest, and from classical Chinese poetry in Western languages to Baudelaire and Celan in Chinese. How does this hang together, how peculiar is any or all of it to China/Chinese, and how does it speak to the explosive mix of poetry and translation at large?

Maghiel van Crevel

Maghiel van Crevel is professor of Chinese language and literature at Leiden University. A specialist of contemporary poetry, he has published a dozen books in English, Dutch, and Chinese, including scholarly monographs and edited volumes, literary translations, and language textbooks.

Mia You

Mia You was born in South Korea, raised in the United States, and currently lives in the Utrecht, the Netherlands. She received a PhD in English literature at UC Berkeley and an MA in Regional Studies: East Asia at Harvard University. She is also author of the poetry collections I, Too, Dislike It (1913 Press, 2016) and Objective Practice (Achiote Press, 2007). In addition to teaching at the Sandberg Institute, You is a lecturer in English Language and Culture at the Universiteit Utrecht.