Can Li Bai, China’s greatest poet, be translated into frat-boy-ese? Lee tried. It is not as crazy as it sounds. Li Bai is an alcoholic poet. Though he has long been translated into a highfalutin English that sounds like a stuffy Shakespere. But Li Bai is just talking about getting drunk. Does Lee’s translation work? […]
We thought we were done with the Song, but we just cannot get enough of it. Now, we are going back to Ouyang Xiu with a poem that features in a translation of a late Qing thinker that Rob is working on. The poem is by Ouyang Xiu, and Rob and Lee disagree about how […]
In this episode, we explore a poem by Su Dongpo. This poem was critical of changes to the salt monopoly, one of the Song state’s main sources of revenue. Su worried that this was impoverishing people (though Wang Anshi, Su Dongpo’s political and poetic opponent, was actually more of an advocate for the poor). This […]
This week, we decide, in the middle of doing the podcast, that the Song has so much interesting stuff going on during it that we have to make this series into a longer series. Today, we are going to tackle a single poem by Su Dongpo 苏东坡 (aka Su Shi 苏轼). The poem we are […]
This week’s episode looks at a Tang Dynasty Poem that cost Meituan Dianping, one of China’s unicorn internet companies, 26 Billion dollars off its market capitalization. In this episode, we take a look at the Zhang Jie’s “Book Burning Pit” and explore the full story behind the poem that the media is not explaining. Here […]
At last! Out of the Maoist wilderness and into what may be the single most riveting decade for literature and the arts of the entire 20th century in China.
19 different translations of a single short Tang Dynasty poem adds up to a guided tour of the rich and peculiar ways other cultures interact with Chinese poetry. Join us as we discuss a wonderful book!
In honor of our good friend Katherine, a long-time listener of the podcast, we’re dedicating an episode to the poet whose work provided the Chinese characters for her son’s name.
50th Podcast Anniversary We Made it to 50! No one expected it, least of all us, but this is our 50th episode with the podcast. Today, Rob and Lee are going to celebrate just like the ancients used to….with a Top 5 Countdown! The pair will share what the top five works of Chinese literature […]
Back in action after a brief hiatus, Lee and Rob interview translator and professor Lucas Klein, whose most recent work, October Dedications, is a book of translations of the poet Mang Ke. Prof. Klein is best-known for his work with Xi Chuan, but gives a nice guided tour of historical trends in poetry translation, the differences […]