Fabio Giaretta
"China Is Near" is often heard to say. And in many ways, mostly economic, may also be true. However it would appear not to be so close from a cultural point of view. The Chinese culture, in fact, it is still quite distant, mysterious and vaguely exotic. Of course, increase learning it and you're mad about it, but there are still a minority, a small group of specialists. If the culture in general are narrower in the poetry, the number of its experts thins even more.
During the poetry festival say 2010, I had the opportunity to meet and interview for The Journal of Vicenza Yang Lian, one of the best known and most representative contemporary Chinese poets. The encounter with this poet has opened my eyes in front of fragments of a world that I totally ignored.
Yang Lian was born in Berne, Switzerland, in 1955 (his parents were officials of the Embassy in that country) and returns to China with his family in the same year.
before a long stint in the country, like most young Chinese poets in the seventies, and then a series of long trips in remote regions of China, are to him paradoxical poetic opportunities for research. Since 1979 began to publish some of his poems the journal "Jintian" (Today), after being introduced by Gu Cheng, met during the Spring democracy movement in Beijing. This magazine is the mouthpiece of a group of authors defined by the Chinese authorities "Menglong," that poets obscure, vague, imprecise because their poetry no longer obeyed the laws imposed by Communist Party officials. In fact, at least since 1949, serving the policy had been for decades the task of literature. Not published love poems or novels or short stories, but works only politically useful. But at the end of the Cultural Revolution (1976) the writers can finally devote not only to the masses. Emerge così una letteratura di critica sociale: è la cosiddetta “letteratura della ferita”, a cui si affiancano altri filoni letterari come “la ricerca delle radici”, “la letteratura della riforma” e, per la poesia, “i Poeti Oscuri”. Sul piano linguistico sono indicati come oscuri perché usano una lingua personale, interiore, legata alla propria esperienza: i concetti artistico-politici come “socialismo”, “capitalismo”, “storia”, “materialismo”, eccetera, sono concetti vuoti, non vere sensazioni, per questo i Poeti Oscuri tornano a parole essenziali come “pietra, terra, luna, sole, vita, morte, dolore” eccetera. Le persone che sono passate attraverso l’esperienza della lingua di propaganda, improvvisamente trovano molto difficile capirli, capire questa lingua “reale, vera”. Tutti i Poeti Oscuri condividono la repulsione per il partito, per il controllo governativo, tuttavia Yang Lian si distingue dagli altri per l’analisi dei legami tra storia, politica e cultura.
In questi anni Yang Lian scrive i poemi Taiyang meitian dou shi xin de [Il sole è nuovo ogni giorno, 1981]; Zi bai. Gei Yuanmingyuan feixu [Confessione. Alle rovine dello Yuanmingyuan, 1981]; Norlang (dal nome di una divinità tibetana, 1983; criticato dalle autorità culturali del governo, che ostacolarono la pubblicazione delle sue opere in China for more than a decade), Xizang [Tibet, 1984] and Yi (since 1985, the title is a transcript of a pictogram invented by the same Yang Lian), as well as several volumes of poetic prose, including Haibian de Haiz [ The child on the seashore, 1982] and Shizhe [He passes, 1985].
the late eighties, Yang Lian began traveling around the world, setting a firm point of collaboration with the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Yang Lian Gu Cheng and his friend are in Auckland where, at the material Tian'an Men of 1989, organized a historic reading of protest in the chapel Maclauren University. His statements against this massacre forced him ad un lungo esilio in varie città: Berlino (dove riceve una fellowship come artista residente da parte della DAAD), New York (presso la fondazione Yaddo), Sidney (dove insegna Lingua e Letteratura cinese all’Università) e, dal 1994, a Londra, dove tuttora risiede.
Oltre alle opere già citate, ha pubblicato diversi altri libri di prosa e di poesia, tra cui ricordiamo Mianju yu eyu [Maschere e coccodrilli, 1989]; Wurencheng [Impersonale, 1991]; Dahai tingzhi zhichu [Dove si ferma il mare, 1992]; Tongxinyuan [Cerchi concentrici, 1997]; Naxie yi [Tutti quegli uno, 1999]; Lihegu de shi [Poesie di Lea Valley, 2001].
Le sue opere sono state tradotte in 25 lingue. In Italia, his poems have been published by Einaudi New Chinese poets in the anthology (Torino 1996, edited by C. Pozzana and A. Russo) and in 2004 the collection was released to the sea where it stops (Scheiwiller - Playon, Milan, prepared by C. Pozzana).
Naturally the themes of poetry by Yang Lian rotate around its long wanderings and the human condition that it follows: exile causes reflections, in particular to itself, on its human and geographical location, language.
report here the entire interview with Yang Lian (a
much shorter version was published in the Journal of Vicenza, 13 May 2010). I want to thank Marta Nori, a teacher of English Language and Literature Cinese presso il Liceo Pigafetta di Vicenza per il suo fondamentale ruolo di interprete e per le numerose informazioni che mi ha fornito e che ho ampiamente riportato in questo cappello introduttivo.
È vero che uno degli eventi che l’ha spinta a scrivere poesie è stata la morte di sua madre?
Sì è vero. Mia madre è morta nel gennaio del 1976. Io ero già per il terzo anno nelle campagne cinesi per la rieducazione a cui erano sottoposti tutti gli intellettuali. Prima della sua morte avevo scritto qualcosa, ma era tutto un po’ romantico e semplice, non avevo mai capito che la poesia nasceva dalla parte più profonda di me. Dopo la sua morte, in me si è creata una sensazione di vuoto enorme, anche perché ero da solo e non c’era nessuno vicino con cui potermi sfogare. La poesia è diventata allora l’unico modo di esprimermi, non solo per me, ma in qualche modo anche per parlare a mia madre. Quest’ultima sensazione segretamente è sempre con me. Quindi mia madre è stata quella che ha fatto iniziare la mia carriera di poeta, però non ha mai letto niente di quello che ho scritto.
Lei è molti altri poeti cinesi siete stati accusati di praticare una poesia “menglong”, cioè una poesia oscura. Come mai vi venne data questa etichetta denigratoria?
Prima di tutto per me poesia oscura non è un nome corretto, ed è nato perché la gente voleva criticarci in quanto could not understand what we wanted to say, as if poetry were shrouded in fog. But from my point of view, the dark poetry was the first time when we started to clean up the language after the Cultural Revolution. We got rid of all those big words like socialism, communism, and we went a bit 'at a time at traditional language, tradition or language. We talked about death, life, sun, moon, pain, but all in a modern way to express our feelings. Then somehow we went to the meeting, however, a traditional language to express the current situation. We expressed our feelings in our own language, and "own" I mean the individual language of each of us, so very different from the language of propaganda which characterized China.
What is your relationship with the classical Chinese poetry? I write in Chinese. It is a language that has changed a lot and I think that there is no Chinese can say today that a Chinese person to be classical. I love classical Chinese poetry, but there is no way to copy it. What I can do is ask me questions and also ask questions to the language, the deepest possible. So from a philosophical point of view, I would say that my poetry is to express the human situation. The poem has to do with our lives. Even if I write this poem, call it modern, ancient classical poets are always behind me and watch me. When I compose a poem, or when I think of the music behind this poem, I also wonder what they think. I would say that my poetry is like a modern answer to the question which I have to gather evidence from all directions to be creative.
The final verse of the poem "1989" dedicated to the massacre of Tian'an Men says: "This undoubtedly is a perfectly ordinary year." It is strange to considering the tragic event ... When it happened Tian'an Men Square massacre were all shocked by what we saw happen, we were desperate and disbelief. So I was raised this question: "Where is our memory for all the deaths that have been before this event, all the dead, for example, the Cultural Revolution?". It seemed to be the first time I saw the dead. If our tears are only used to wash the memory, then who can guarantee that it will not happen another Tian'an Men? In Homage to
poetry she writes: "I am a poet / if I want the pink blossom bloom / freedom will return." From these verses show great confidence in
poem ... When I wrote this poem I was still very young, so it's a bit 'romantic. But Thirty years later I find that my faith in poetry has become deeper and stronger. I think this global world is becoming a global cynicism and selfishness that dominates the union of power and money overall. Even if poetry is not rejected by this power and this money, however, is the poem to refuse them. Poetry is the freedom of thought and speech. Poetry is the place where we oppose our resistance ethics. Just for the power that poetry, I think that ultimately manages to connect and unite all those free thinkers that we are all over the world.
She now lives in London. Have you ever thought of writing in English? I think the
language has a lot to do with our origins. I have always been called a poet in exile. But I wondered: "Who is not in exile, when you're a creative person?". Because there is obviously a political significance, but also a language. As a poet I want to create my own language, so there is only one Chinese language, but there is a Chinese Yang Lian. I have three names by which I call myself. First call myself a poet of China. Why of course after the period of the Cultural Revolution, the poem speaks of the political difficulties of that country. Then of course I left China and I wandered to other countries and so it was that I made always realize that poetry has to do with the difficulties of life in general.
Also, since I write in Chinese, I call myself the poet of the Chinese language, but my Chinese is different from that of other Chinese. My Chinese is not easy to translate into other languages, and then they call me a poet who writes in "Yanglish", a mixture of "Yang" and "Inglese".
So not only the poet belongs to his mother tongue but the language belongs to the poet. It is our thinking, our creative writing that are the real root of the tongue. It is in this sense that I can only say that the Chinese tradition is a tradition that lives. All my viaggiare e girovagare ha come unico significato vero quello di rendere più profonda la mia esperienza che mi serve per essere creativo. È difficile però a me piace.
In cinese non esistono i tempi verbali, il verbo non cambia mai. Lei ha sempre sfruttato questa caratteristica perché, in un certo senso, permette alla storia di essere sempre riscritta e di esistere anche al presente. Qual è per lei la distanza tra presente e passato visto che non è sempre così chiara da un punto di vista grammaticale? Effettivamente la lingua cinese è molto speciale. Si ha la sensazione che tenda sempre per prima cosa ad afferrare il concreto e poi un po’ alla volta torna indietro e fa scoprire l’intera situazione. Per esempio in cinese se diciamo bere il verbo non cambia mai, cent’anni fa bere, oggi bere, domani bere, quindi in questo verbo così fisso, stabile, è tutto compreso: presente, passato, futuro. Per me scrivere poesia in cinese è scrivere sulla situazione. Io la vedo come una situazione che non ha tempo e quindi per fortuna posso scrivere in una lingua che non ha tempo.
Quali sono i suoi rapporti con la Cina e con gli scrittori cinesi contemporanei? Sono tornato in Cina abbastanza spesso perché amo mio padre che ha ottantotto anni ed è anche un modo per tenere un rapporto molto stretto con il mio Paese. La Cina di per se stessa è come una poesia molto complessa. Tutti, compresi i cinesi, quando think of China have very different and complex images in their minds. It looks like a communist country but also the big brother of the international capitalist society. It's not like the days of the Cold War with the struggle between communism and capitalism, but it's like a huge body that contains many contradictory elements. Continue the process of transforming traditional start of the last century with the introduction of new elements, especially economic. As a poet I can say that China is not only a problem of the Chinese. With its great economic power has forced the world to play according to its rules. All politicians when they go to western China normally do two things. First you must no question of human rights and democracy. But just finished this task, they sit down and talk about employment contracts. For me writing a poem and confront this international situation is very important. It is painful for me to see this game a bit 'cynical. It's a little 'a nightmare but it can be a source of inspiration. I believe that China poses questions as it is now all over the world: What is politics today? What is the true significance of literature today? What is the real link between life and literature, what makes literature necessary? If we can answer these questions we can grow and also help China to grow.
I have very close contact with my poet friends who live in China and I know that if they are good writers are not part of associations. Are in the same situation where I was when I was exiled only that they were being self-exile in China. But there are many young poets, and websites in which they publish their poems are very vivid. Now the Internet and websites are now as underground publications of our eighties. So everything is very lively but still full of questions.
Speaking of his poetry in which he responded to a questionnaire between 1992 and 1993, she has divided into two periods: from poetry to the short-long. Can you explain more about this evolution? Today, as we further evolved? usually do not separate myself as far from poetry about poetry because I think that the specific form of poetry should be required than what I have to say.
For me 1989 was a watershed, before I wrote two whole books consisting of a series of poems I wrote after very long and very short poems instead. Before 1989, I wanted to dig into all the layers of traditional Chinese culture, its language, its classicism, its musicality and also its relevance, its modernism, then why the poems are very long. For example, the work is titled Yi is based on one of the classics of Chinese literature but in a very modern and contemporary. How to bring 5000 years of Chinese history in a modern poetry and a contemporary structure. After 1989 I was in exile, particularly in western countries and I did not speak English so the problem has been telling me what had happened. This is why the poems that follow the 1989 are so sharp, precise, neat, because I had somehow cut those emotions and feelings. Where the work stops, the sea, made up of several sequences of poems I found myself for the first time, after leaving China, to switch back to a much wider poetry. To return to what I said, between form and poetry there must be a necessity, that I write a lot of things experimental, I can return to the tradition, but there must be a classic encounter between my mind and my soul.
You said that "every Chinese character is a trap into which they fall one after the other generations." What does this mean?
The Chinese language is very flexible, allows you to play very well, but it is also very tricky. For example Ezra Pound created the genre of the imago, almost a game that could be done with the Chinese language and its characters. It has become almost a trademark of the Chinese language. But if I look at these games, in these experiments, I find them very beautiful in appearance, very stimulating, but just go deeper I wonder, "what is the reason, what is the need for which I have to do these games?". Even the imago has become a game yet. This game can be easy, because you play with the image, with the superficiality, the difficult thing is to descend into the depths of poetry.
She said: "The poem I am forced to accept reality." What kind of reality? The reality is composed of many contradictions, and even as far as I'm concerned, there are many of these contradictions with which I have a little 'time to come to terms. So it's a question to accept external reality yes, but also myself. For example, after the Cultural Revolution, after the massacre of Tian'an Men, people always ask who caused this disaster. But if I look inside me I must admit that even a part of me may have helped create this disaster, this issue. Because now people are more reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution? Even Tian'an Men almost forgot, now we are all taken from this wealth and opulence and so, somehow, we are also responsible for having forgotten the dead. Now China has exploded not only from an economic standpoint, but also produces well-being for the West. When I see politicians who do business with China's western industrial and sign and exchange contracts money and produce more money, so perhaps they too are responsible for those deaths. Perhaps the only truth is the impossibility of basing everything on selfishness and cynicism International. I have this phrase that I came here in Italy: "Starting from the impossible." I think that poetry has taught me how to look inside of me, but where to start, when to start to go out and break something.
In China quietly moving his books or is there some form of censure against him?
have been republished in China after the massacre Tian'an Men and again in 1999, that is ten years away. My books have been reprinted and have also sold quite well. I always work on at least two levels, the poetic and the political. Two years ago I was elected as a member of a group of international poets and then after my website was blocked by the government. The situation is complex because I can go back to China, but when I do I get looked at very, very closely. It is a fairly typical situation in China today, and in particular independent writers are watched very closely. Of course they can not control everything that's on the internet, but only a few independent intellectual sets foot in China, it is checked in person.
Un anno che si chiude nel peggiore dei modi per il nostro contingente militare presente nei teatri di guerra in giro per il mondo. Una notizia dell'ultimo minuto conferma l'uccisione di un nostro soldato, Matteo Miotto , (foto) 24 anni, " assassinato " da un cecchino in Afghanistan . Il fatto happened to Gulistan (Farah Province), a hot zone assigned to the control of the Italian soldiers. Our military has been hit by a sniper while he was on guard in a tower inside the base, a bullet that came from the shoulder has damaged vital organs. With the death of the military, rose to 35 the number of Italians killed in Afghanistan since the mission in 2004. These are their names: 
