Mither Tongue

by Jidi Majia, Gerry Loose (Editor)

Overview

This collection of Jidi Majia’s poetry in Chinese and Nuosu (a lesser-spoken language in China, though there are around two and a half million speakers) has been translated into the three strands of the Scots language: Lallans by Stuart Paterson, Doric by Sheena Blackhall and Shetlandic by Christine de Luca. These translations will be face-to-face with an English translation by the eminent translator from Chinese, Denis Mair, who will also provide a preface on the context of Jidi Majia’s heritage and poetry.

Jidi Majia’s Scots translators have undoubtedly brought his vitality into alignment with the power of the Scots tongues, as does Denis Mair’s excellent and erudite rendering into English. Aimed at two linguistic communities and coming from two linguistic communities at the other side of the planet, this collection presents a perfect symmetry in a globalized world where we need a dialogue not only between the powerful but also and perhaps even more rewardingly between the local and marginalized. The infinite is often to be encountered in the circumscribed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913212315
Publisher:	Vagabond Voices
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)
Language:	Scots

About the Author

Jidi Majia’s work, while translated into other European and Asian languages has never before been seen in the UK. This is a unique presentation of his work in both Scots and English, bringing to readers a view of the work of this eminent ethnic poet from China’s Sichuan region. He has published numerous poetic anthologies since the 1980s and has won national literature awards, and is considered one of the greatest poets of minorities in China. He is the President of the China Minority Literary Association. His themes, while embedded in his Nuosu culture, are timely explorations of what it means to be at one with nature and with his fellow humans. He writes with humility and compassion, with a wide-ranging knowledge of all Chinese literatures, across the dynasties and embracing present day Chinese poetics. His assimilation of the world’s great literatures, together with expertise in Chinese and Nuosu literatures leads to an astonishing tour de force of poetry in which In everything that Jidi Majia writes there is this dual orientation: on one hand it is rooted in the land-based, tribal sensibility of the Nuosu, and on the other hand it is characterized by expansive subjectivity reaching out into the modern world.

Table of Contents

Introduction Gerry Loose vii

The Enduring One translated Denis Mair 2

Da Een Beyond Foryattin translated Christine De Luca 3

I, Snow Leopard translated Denis Mair 40

Snaw Ghaist translated Stuart Paterson 41

Dedicated to Mama: Twenty Sonnets translated Denis Mair 72

Dedicatit tae Mama: 20 Sonnets translated Sheena Blackhall 73

$$$ (The Enduring One) 115

$$$ (I, Snow Leopard) 137

$$$ (Dedicated To Mama: Twenty Sonnets) 157

Afterword Denis Mair 179