AustLit logo
y separately published work icon Self Translation selected work   poetry  
Alternative title: Zi yi ji Self Translation
Issue Details: First known date: 2012... 2012 Self Translation
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'in the river before the eye on the heaven beneath the feet'

Poems first written in Chinese but now presented in both Chinese and English, Self Translation is arguably Ouyang Yu's most lyrical and resonant collection of poetry to date. The verse inhabits China and Australia in spirit and the natural world in both nations. Mellow and beautiful, yet questioning of the author's own experience of moving between cultures, these are poems that provide a perfect companion to Ouyang's award-winning novel The English Class. They feel at once Chinese and Australian in the intuitive and often indefinable elements that provide a path between two places.' (Publisher's blurb)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Transit Lounge , 2012 .
      Extent: 247p.
      Note/s:
      • Text is in English and Chinese.
      ISBN: 9781921924279 (pbk.) :

Works about this Work

Jal Nicholl Reviews Ouyang Yu Jal Nicholl , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 41 2013;

— Review of Self Translation Yu Ouyang , Yu Ouyang (translator), 2012 selected work poetry
Poet Takes Both Roads Michael Farrell , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 February 2013; (p. 22-23)

— Review of Self Translation Yu Ouyang , Yu Ouyang (translator), 2012 selected work poetry
Aspects of Australian Poetry in 2012 Michelle Cahill , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 58 no. 1 2013; (p. 68-91)

'T he act of reading for appraisal rather than pleasure is a privilege that brings me to a deepened understanding of the contemporary in Australian poetry, the way the past is being framed, its traditions, celebrities and enigmas washed up in new and hybrid appearances or redressed in more conventional, sometimes nimbus forms. Judith Wright wrote that the ‘place to find clues is not in the present, it lies in the past: a shallow past, as all immigrants to Australia know, and all of us are immigrants.’ The discipline of reading to filter such a range of voices underlines my foreignness, making reading akin to translation, whilst reciprocally inviting the reader of this essay to become a foreigner to my assumptions and conclusions.' (Introduction)

Poet Takes Both Roads Michael Farrell , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 February 2013; (p. 22-23)

— Review of Self Translation Yu Ouyang , Yu Ouyang (translator), 2012 selected work poetry
Jal Nicholl Reviews Ouyang Yu Jal Nicholl , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , no. 41 2013;

— Review of Self Translation Yu Ouyang , Yu Ouyang (translator), 2012 selected work poetry
Aspects of Australian Poetry in 2012 Michelle Cahill , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , June vol. 58 no. 1 2013; (p. 68-91)

'T he act of reading for appraisal rather than pleasure is a privilege that brings me to a deepened understanding of the contemporary in Australian poetry, the way the past is being framed, its traditions, celebrities and enigmas washed up in new and hybrid appearances or redressed in more conventional, sometimes nimbus forms. Judith Wright wrote that the ‘place to find clues is not in the present, it lies in the past: a shallow past, as all immigrants to Australia know, and all of us are immigrants.’ The discipline of reading to filter such a range of voices underlines my foreignness, making reading akin to translation, whilst reciprocally inviting the reader of this essay to become a foreigner to my assumptions and conclusions.' (Introduction)

Last amended 23 Jul 2013 13:54:12
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X