GRcade

Hello. I suppose this should probably go in the Literature Thread, but I don't know where that is and I doubt this'll be around to clog up page one for that long so I'll post it anyway.

I've recently started reading a lot of and around the subject of Chinese poetry in preparation for my Uni dissertation next year and whilst it's fresh in my mind and I'm sat at my computer I thought I'd maybe try and start a wee bit of a discussion.

So, what kind of stuff are you guys into? Do you have any favourite poets? Care to post any of your all time favourite works for our viewing pleasure? Or, (possibly, though probably not) better yet, do you have any of your own work for us to read?

In terms of Chinese poetry (I can't really speak for other Asian genres), I'm finding it really interesting looking at the necessity for translators to read between the lines and really look at the poem's context and the writer's intention. A poem may simply be made up of a few Chinese characters, but there's an almost unlimited number of modes in which it could be translated. It really highlights just how much of an art translation is. The poems are also often very short and make for a nice bit of quick, but highly visual reading, if anyone's interested.

So, what about you fellas?

ode to china
yo yo chinese come talk to me
i want a number thirty three
its all for your financial gain
that i must have egg fried rice mayne
what you mean theres an order barrier
compton is inside your delivery area
you wont deliver what is this crap
is it cos i is hung and black

Amazing.

Chicken Chow Mein
Mayne.

Fabulous Eighty, I bow to you.

It seems wrong that Kinetic has come here looking for some high brow conversation and instead he's been greeted with an Ali G themed greetings card verse from the former Lord Mayor of acceptable sentence construction. The joke has gone too far. For shame.

To be fair to the man, I did ask for people to post their work and 8 obliged in a pretty entertaining fashion.

Any non gangsta-related comments would also be most welcome though.

Vaguely back on topic, the poems Ezra Pound translated from the original Chinese are astonishing.

the best thing about my poem is the artistic license licence liesense lysuns fuck-knows-but-thats-what-it-is that i used mayne

see the clever way in which i said the fried rice was number thirty three to get a rym when everyone knows its about number 110 on a real menu below the chow maynes and gooseberry fool

now thats art brothas

Eightycent wrote:the best thing about my poem is the artistic license licence liesense lysuns fuck-knows-but-thats-what-it-is that i used mayne

see the clever way in which i said the fried rice was number thirty three to get a rym when everyone knows its about number 110 on a real menu mayne

now thats art brothas

I particularly enjoyed your complete disregard for traditional poetry convention when you rhymed 'barrier' with 'area'.

Atreyu wrote:Vaguely back on topic, the poems Ezra Pound translated from the original Chinese are astonishing.

pounds work was pretty well regarded back in the day mayne but in the past 18 months or so its been substantially devalued mayne

Eightycent wrote:

Atreyu wrote:Vaguely back on topic, the poems Ezra Pound translated from the original Chinese are astonishing.

pounds work was pretty well regarded back in the day mayne but in the past 18 months or so its been substantially devalued mayne

Wildean.

Say what you will about Pound, but his legacy is undeniable. From the viewpoint of Chinese poetry, the man produced some of the most accurate and beautiful translations we have today without ever having a prior knowledge of the language and helped spread both Chinese and Japanese poetry and theatre to the West.

Alright then, indulge me with some of my favourite verse. Ahem.

"I'm like the copy-cat killer
Boston-strangling niggaz
proceed to rob the spot like Dillinger
battle-cat like Cringer
I'm sabre-tooth, coming at you
get loose with henny 80 proof
in the hood, never slippin' while I'm drinkin' my juice
dance to my ritual
lower you into my seance
bitch wearing Avon
Mr Miyagi wax-on
I'm buff - you're frontin without that BK butter stuff
Darkman is king - lampin' on my throne of blood.
La can walk through walls, stand straight up in fire
Look at your eyes, look at my eyes pussy and tell me who's higher
Dark vampire, guardin' you now like a gun,
Rollin' wit' 9 rich niggaz and I'm bound to be the tenth one."

strawberry float Phillip Larkin!

moi wrote:strawberry float Phillip Larkin!

If someone had, he might have been altogether more chipper in his outlook.

I saw a play about him ages ago with Jim Broadbent playing Phil, and from what I can remember he had plenty of female attention but he just liked the jazz mags.

Is that right? I haven't read much about his life & times (always pictured him sadly beavering away in his library) and stuff like 'Love Again' and 'Annus Mirabilis' doesn't really convey the idea of a man who's getting much. But there you go.

Well, I was half-watching it while doing something else and it's a dramatisation anyway, s'pose they've got to sex it up; I think I read he had a few affairs though. I'm bluffing really, my knowledge of poetry is pretty limited!

God knows where I got Jim Broadbent from, the play was called Love Again and it was Hugh Bonneville playing the lugubrious Eric Morecambe lookalike.

Atreyu wrote:

moi wrote:strawberry float Phillip Larkin!

If someone had, he might have been altogether more chipper in his outlook.

ooh smooth. i bet you've used that cheeky one to good effect before

premature don't post clarkman