Found in translation
For a poet writing in late Tang-era China, Li Shangyin sure was cheeky. “My brother read some of the poems I’ve been translating,” said Chloe Garcia Roberts, “and he described them as a classical Chinese Buzzfeed.” Garcia Roberts, an associate curator in Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, has spent several years translating Li’s work, including a series of obscure lists, which Garcia Roberts, and even her brother, find completely modern. “The list-poems document one person’s reactions to and interactions with the mundane aspects of his life, and there isn’t anyone alive who can’t relate to that,” said Garcia Roberts. She calls the list-poems funny and bitter. “They read like a notebook that you keep in your pocket to write down things that irritate you. One of the poems I really love I’ve translated as ‘Scenery Killers,’ but the basic idea is chronicling things that spoil your enjoyment of your surroundings.” Soundbytes: Unacceptable by Li Shangyin ...