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Overview
Incisive and confessional, Raised by Wolves collects the most acclaimed work of Taiwanese poet -filmmaker Amang. In her poems, Amang turns her razor-sharp eye to everything from her suitors ("For twenty years I’ve loved you, twenty years / So why not say yes / You want to see my nude photos?") to international affairs —"You’d have to win the lottery ten times over / And the U.N. hasn’t won it even once." Keenly observational yet occasionally absurd, these poems are urgent and lucid, as Amang embraces the cruelty and beauty of life in equal measure.Raised by Wolves also presents a groundbreaking new framework for translation. Far from positing the transition between languages as an invisible and fixed process, Amang and translator Steve Bradbury let the reader in. Multiple English versions of the same Chinese poem often accompany dialogues between author and translator: the two debate as wide -ranging topics as the merits of English tenses, the role of Chinese mythology, and whether to tell the truth you have to lie a little, or a lot. Author, her poems, and translator, work in tandem, "Wanting that which was unbearable / To appear unbearable / Just as it should be."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781944700911 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Deep Vellum Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2020 |
| Pages: | 152 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d) |
About the Author
Steve Bradbury lived for many years in Taiwan, where he was Associate Professor of English at National Central Universityand founding editor of Full Tilt: a journal of East-Asia poetry, translation and the arts. A long-standing member of the American Literary Translators Association, he is a recipient of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship, and two Henry Luce Foundation Chinese Poetry & Translation Fellowships. He has published hundreds of translations in over fifty journals and anthologies and written extensively on the subject of Chinese poetry in translation. His most recent book-length translation, Hsia Yü’s Salsa (Zephyr Press, 2014), was short-listed for the Lucien Stryk Prize. His previous collection, a chapbook of the poetry of Ye Mimi entitled His Days Go by the Way Her Years (Anomalous Press 2013), was a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award.
Read an Excerpt
She Says
I can give you anything
Meimei
Except that puny little stick
They call a prick
And is that worth making a fuss about?
I can play anything
I blow a mean trumpet and can strum with the best of them
Believe me, Meimei, when it comes to fingering
I’m a bona fide genius
I swim four thousand meters a day
My periods are perfect
My pecs, too
And, boy, can I flex
For twenty years I’ve loved you, twenty years
So why not say yes
You want to see my nude photos?
Is it men you like?
Did you sleep with a man last night?
I tried calling you at home but you never answered
And your cell phone was off
You were out the whole night
Where did you sleep?
Did you sleep at all?
I could have sworn I saw you just as dawn was breaking
You were tender as the morning mist
We were making love
Meimei
Your night is my day
All that water
The Pacific surging between us
All that water
Stars galore
There are times my night is your day
If the earth stopped turning it would be disastrous
Open your heart to me
Unlock that chest you left gleaming in some forgotten corner
We've already wasted twenty years
This isn't just talk
I've plans for you
Let me buy you a plane ticket
Next year I'll make full professor and you can come to stay
If you don’t want to have a child
I can have it
I want to have a child with you
I want to have a child
As pretty as you
As pretty as me
Meimei
You came this morning
Though I haven't time for this
Will you marry me?
Tell me
Did you really come?
Don't rush to answer
Just tell me right away