Exchange student – 留学 – English

originally published on:01/09/2010(log in to improve translation) AUTHOR: Hou Ma - 侯马
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You are viewing an old revision of this post, from November 24, 2014 @ 13:48:53. See below for differences between this version and the current revision.

after living in Europe for a while

we learnt to be like the locals

smiled even when we bumped into strangers

but when we occasionally bumped into compatriots

we behaved as if we were back home

stiffened up nervous, solemn faces

Yisha’s comments: while translating Anna Akhmatova, Zhu Jian said that Akhmatova is the true “queen of short poems”. When I heard what he said, I couldn’t really accept it, because I never felt that the “short poems” she wrote were “short poems”. I think the reason for this is because, though the length of her writing is short, she writes widely and deeply, and this is definitely not a minor trick borne out of a flash of inspiration, (which is typically the structure of a “short poem”). For the same reasons, I also do not feel that this poem by Hou Ma is a “short poem”, because it is written with such breadth and depth that the content uncovered by the poem is enough to fill an entire book. This is precisely the strength of poetry, to express deep meaning with concise and carefully chosen language.


Source : Douban

Article Revisions:

Changes:

November 24, 2014 @ 13:48:53Current Revision
Content
<p>after living in Europe for a while</p>  <p>After living in Europe for a while </p>
<p>we learnt to be like the locals</p> <p>we learnt to be like the locals</p>
<p>smiled even when we bumped into strangers</p> <p>smiled even when we bumped into strangers</p>
<p>but when we occasionally bumped into compatriots</p> <p>but when we occasionally bumped into compatriots</p>
<p>we behaved as if we were back home</p> <p>we behaved as if we were back home</p>
<p>stiffened up nervous, solemn faces</p> <p>stiffened up nervous, solemn faces</p>
<p>Yisha’s comments: while translating Anna Akhmatova, Zhu Jian said that Akhmatova is the true “queen of short poems”. When I heard what he said, I couldn’t really accept it, because I never felt that the “short poems” she wrote were “short poems”. I think the reason for this is because, though the length of her writing is short, she writes widely and deeply, and this is definitely not a minor trick borne out of a flash of inspiration, (which is typically the structure of a “short poem”). For the same reasons, I also do not feel that this poem by Hou Ma is a “short poem”, because it is written with such breadth and depth that the content uncovered by the poem is enough to fill an entire book. This is precisely the strength of poetry, to express deep meaning with concise and carefully chosen language.</p>  <p>Yisha’s comments: while translating Anna Akhmatova, Zhu Jian said that Akhmatova is the true “queen of short poems”. When I heard what he said, I couldn’t really accept it, because I never felt that the “short poems” she wrote were “short poems”. I think the reason for this is because, though the length of her writing is short, she writes widely and deeply, and this is definitely not a minor trick borne out of a flash of inspiration, (which is typically the structure of a short poem). For the same reasons, I also do not feel that this poem by Hou Ma is a “short poem”, because it is written with such breadth and depth that the content uncovered by the poem is enough to fill an entire book. This is precisely the strength of poetry, the power to express deep meaning with concise and carefully chosen language.</p>

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