Shanna & Languages

Of translation, books, languages and me

singapore poetry

用白紙做的小孩｜伍政瑋

他誕生於一本書的

空白的

第一頁

他執迷

色彩繽紛的顏料

他渴望某天成為天空的彩虹

直到他遇見

黑

出自於「用白紙做的小孩」/ 伍政瑋 （@seabreezebookssg 出版）

文字精辟。這是我第一印象。 伍政瑋的詩詞給我的感覺很特別。易懂，又不失文采。不常讀詩集的人也能很快的融入詩的意境。雖說詩詞易懂，但也留了空間給讀者自己琢磨其中深層的含意。字句間透著對成長、人生、社會的感悟，從而也引導讀者去思考自己的經歷。 伍政瑋的詩不受傳統格律限制，節奏、形式多樣化，其中的創意也讓詩詞變得有趣。這是一本我會反覆閱讀的詩集，推薦指數11/10。

Incisive, experimental, clever, and fun.

That’s how I’d describe Wu Zheng Wei’s debut poetry collection. While I have half a foot (or maybe a toe) in the literary scene, I tend to approach reviews from the perspective of the average reader that I am, and to me, the accessibility of a book is also as important as its literary quality or brilliance. It’s so fun to read. And that’s why I love it so much.

Wu picks up the most mundane and everyday objects or happenings around us and turn it into beautiful and sharp lines that I find myself rolling over my tongue and brain, chewing over each and every single word. I love poetry that points me to things I tend to overlook or forget, and the brevity of each piece makes me slow down to digest what’s within the lines, and how it intersects with my own experience and perspectives.

The collection is divided into two part: 「十分痛」and 「微雨之城」. The first part is about coming of age, the latter part zooming out to look at the fabric of society.

Would recommend this 11/10.

購買 ｜ Purchase it here

A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals by Wong May

What a badass title. This a reissue of Wong May’s poetry collection, first published in 1969 (!) in the US.

Before I go into how her work makes me feel (and it does evoke FEELS), I’m very intrigued by Wong May herself. In her case, it feels like reading her work is reading her and to know her work, you must know her. Please read the foreword!!  

Wong May hails from Chongqing, China, spending her formative years in Singapore, attending Chinese-medium schools before going on to major in English Lit in NUS and then moving to the US for an MFA and now residing in Dublin. She’s a transnational poet who is hard to categorise – just like her work. It’s interesting how her work is only published in Singapore 54 years later, and she appears to be – until recently – relatively unknown even among the local literary circle.

Intriguing is also a word to describe her work. I initially thought that the title came from one of the poems in the book, as is usually the case, but later, I realise that perhaps the poems are the animals, wild and unfettered. 

I’d be honest and say that initially, I thought her poetry was ‘hard.’ Or perhaps unfamiliar might be a better word. Upon reflection, perhaps I was also seeing her poetry from within the restrictions of my own world and my barebone understanding of poetry. When I tried to let go and just immerse myself in the ‘wordlessness’ of things – a word she uses herself – her poetry reads different. To me, that’s a lesson learnt.

Her work is meant to be enjoyed visually, playing with the use of spacing at times, and the strong sense of musicality and rhythm also give me pause.

It’s clearly a collection that begs to engage with all your senses and it reminds me somewhat of Lynn Xu’s ‘And Those Ashen Heaps that Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight.’ I was lucky to visit her debut exhibition in MOCA Tucson last year – a true experiment in installation and format, translating, retelling, and reimagining her poetry. I find myself imagining that with Wong May’s work.

One thing I love about reading poetry is that there’s so much room for imagination and what we take away is uniquely ours. For me, I love the strong personality that seems to infuse each piece and I wonder how it would be like to read her poetry back in the 1960s!

Kudos to Ethos Books for bringing her work back to Singapore and to Tse Hao Guang for pushing for the republication of her work and for writing such a deeply personal and thoughtful foreword.

Buy it on Ethos Books

Singapore Poetry Collection 查無此人

最近開始接觸現代詩，在閱讀曾國平的《查無此人》當兒，腦海裡一直在想著：如果有活動或是演出能欣賞詩集中的詩歌演繹，我一定會去。有些詩詞只適合一個人慢慢琢磨或是靜靜的閱讀，但《查無此人》 時而波瀾壯闊、時而感人，那一定會是非常精彩的表演。

《查無此人》是以詩人與他父親疏離的關係為開端，追溯父親兒時、年少的過往，從而洋洋灑灑穿梭於歷史的不同朝代和中華民族落腳的土地，以其為題材，講述移民、新加坡華人的民族記憶等。詩集的格局從個人、家庭為起點，慢慢的擴大至華族幾千年的歷史， 讀者也彷彿和詩人一起踏上回憶、歷史的旅程。

以下的幾句是我印象最深刻的部分。

//

我沒有父親的記憶

我只有父親

//

他走進照片

走進族譜

走不進我的心

//

父親因為懷念家鄉

練就一流廚藝

一道道客家山水

被他搬到湯裡菜裡

挪到餐桌

安慰他的中年老年

無數黃昏黑夜

我也在這些香味認識

永定老家

It’s not often that I read modern Chinese poetry but I’m so pleased to dip my toes back in the genre through Singaporean poet Chan Kok Peng’s (曾國平) newest collection. With 60 standalone poems that string together to form a narrative, it’s a stunning collection of performance poetry and seeing how the poetry evoke emotions that run the gamut, I do hope that I can attend the poet’s reading or to watch a stage performance. The title speaks of absence, which is also a key running theme. It starts off with the poet’s somewhat estranged relationship with his father, and from the theme of familial relationships, the collection builds up its momentum to cover expansive topics from the Chinese diaspora, the diaspora identity and the passing down and loss of culture / traditions, which as a Singaporean Chinese, I can relate to very strongly. It’s a powerful and emotional collection.

My favourite bits are the ones directly about the father-son relationship and how the narrator navigates his relationship with his father and tries to understand his father by recounting and reflecting on his father’s youth, intertwined with the history of the Chinese diaspora and the “Sinophone” literature, and then bringing us even further back to the years of different dynasties in China.

I love how in poetry, a lot of things are up for the reader’s interpretation and one of the personal takeaways from the collection is a deeper reflection of what it means to be diaspora / overseas Chinese and how we engage with our identity/identities and our “Chineseness”.

Definitely worth reading.

Get it at Seabreeze Books (還風書屋)