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Li Hongqi's "Lucky Bastard"
By Cindy Carter, published June 24, 7:28a.m.
Just bought Li Hongqi's novel "Lucky Bastard" (李红旗 《幸运儿》). It was the back cover blurbs that caught my eye: high praise from Han Dong and Zhu Wen; few first-time Chinese authors can ask for better that that.
In Zhu Wen's amusing preface to the book, he admits that although he has been "lazy" about writing lately, he was pleased to write a few paragraphs on behalf of Li Hongqi, a young poet-novelist who first came to Zhu Wen's attention with his poem "Friends".
I liked "Friends" so much that I translated it on the spot:
Poem: Friends
Poet: Li Hongqi
In the autumn of 1994,
many people were engaged
in the study of sexual intercourse.
That's about the time I learned it.
Naturally, prior to that autumn
there were a good many people
who'd been having intercourse for years,
and of course a whole lot more
who hadn't mastered it,
even by the autumn of 1994.
If all those interested alumni
of the sexual intercourse
circa autumn 1994
could only find some way
to re-establish contact
with one another,
who knows...
everyone might just end up
making a friend.
(Click "more" to see the original poem in Chinese)
朋友 （李红旗）
一九九四年的秋天
许多人都学会了性交
我就是在那时候学会的
还有很多人
在那年秋天到来之前
已经性交了好几年了
当然了， 也有好多人
直到一九九四年的秋天
也没有学会
如果有兴趣的话
那些在一九九四年秋天
学会性交的人
请想办法互相联系一下
说不定大家可以交个朋友
Comments
Becoming friends? "Making a friend" just seems a bit too literal.
Micah Sitig, July 10, 11:35p.m.
Sexual Intercourse--a sensable topic for many people, may not be spoken out derectely in public. you bravely spoke it out in the style of a poem. hehe, I don't think it is a poem, but a strange idea about the milestone in the process of humen being's growth. When you began to think of studying this kind of skill, you were not yet an adult. it's just physical maturity.
yousay, July 15, 12:14a.m.
Hi Micah,
I chose "making a friend" because I wanted to communicate a slight double entendre. I was trying to associate "making a friend" with sexual terms like "making it", "making out", "making love", "on the make"), etc. In that sense, "making a friend" could be read two ways - becoming friends or making it with a friend. Incidentally, this is a double entendre that doesn't exist in the original Chinese...I definitely took some poetic license with this!
-C
Cindy Carter, July 21, 8:36p.m.
On second thought, there might be a hint of double meaning in the original Chinese. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that 交 in 交个朋友 kind of leads one to think of 性交。This would be a good question for the author, Li Hongqi. Hope we can interview him for the blog at some point.
Cindy Carter, July 22, 2:29a.m.
Li Hongqi is not really first-time author, he is a member of the Lower Body 下半身 and has been writing poetry for years. Han Dong is sort of the godfather of this group, so it makes sense that he says good things about Li's book. Or did you know that already?
Great blog, I'll come more often!
Lu, July 30, 11:14p.m.
Dear Lu (Micah?),
Blame my poor and lazy choice of words...I should have written "first time novelist", rather than "first time author".
It's strange - I'd heard word of Li Hongqi for years and seen his name around, but had never really read his poetry until recently.
You noted the poetic connection between Han Dong and Li Hongqi.
For those reading this who might not be acquainted with the history, the three blurbs/recommendations on the book jacket of Li Hongqi's first novel are from writer Han Dong, writer/filmmaker Zhu Wen and musician Zu Zhou - all artists that he has worked with in the past.
Zhu Wen was a producer (监制, in this case）of Li Hongqi's indie film "So Much Rice" (好多大米）. Han Dong and Zu Zhou appeared in the film, and Zu Zhou did the music for the film.
Glad you like the blog. We're still in early stages and as always, all suggestions are welcome. Please contact either me, Eric or Brendan if you have any authors you would like to see featured (or if you would like to contribute translations, because it sounds like you might have a few good translations kicking about...am I right?)
Cindy Carter, August 9, 11:03a.m.
(Lu's not me)
Micah, August 10, 8:07a.m.
I just saw in a Paris exhibition called "Dans la ville chinoise" five short films including an intriguing one by Li Hongqi called "New Year" (《新年快乐》). As I was looking for info about this director, I happened to find your comments about him. This helped me a lot understand him better. In addition, the short films above-mentioned were under the leadership of Jia Zhangke (who directed the first one, about Suzhou, called "Cry me a river" - 河上的爱情. I now understand the connection between the two : for his last film, 24 City, Jia used poems by a poetress who is also member of this same 下半身 poetry group... This is all a very small world. Thanks a lot !
Brigitte Duzan, August 19, 7:50a.m.