whisper of the star

CHOI Lai Sheung. Whispers of the Star. A collection of poems (Chinese-English bilingual). Translated by Zhang Zhizhong. Published by The Earth Culture Press (USA), August 2009, pages 247, price US$10.00. ISBN 978-0-9637599-6-5/A.080

CHOI Lai Sheung, who writes short personal lyrics, is a contemporary Chinese poet, born in the city of Shishi in Fujian province but now based in Hong Kong. The author of more than 70 books and editor-in-chief of the multilingual newspaper The World Poets Quarterly, she is also well-versed in calligraphy with an established reputation in gymnastics and fencing.

Reading her 100 translated poems, I find Choi to be a romantic visionary poet, with a mature aesthetic and poetic sense. Unlike many poets whose verses are monotonous and stale, Choi’s poems have much lasting value: her verses are not only short and profound, but also perfect and meaningful. She merges thoughts, feelings and emotions, with highs and lows of spirit, and shows the inner reality:

“How can I
is imperfect
To be tolerated by my love

I’m all for beauty
But not beauty itself (p. 227)

Both Choi and Zhang Zhizhong achieve a great level of spiritual richness by creating and translating the last two lines of the poem ‘Imperfection’.

When the duet says: “Tenacity is kneaded in silence/Silence runs with the tears of the heart” (p. 225); “Dreaming of spreading the wings of my heart/Flying to paradise/Fragranced by the mortal world” (p. 209); “The sea as passion / The rainbow as a brush / I dance and fly in the universe” (p. 189); “Just a stretch of rainbows / In a selfless round / Between heaven and earth” (p. 185); “I am a net in search and exploration/ Cast around the unknown ocean” (p. 183); “Sleep is a pure land/Where all hearts are equal” (p. 175); “Rivers and lakes stretch to infinity/Water and sky share the same color” (p. 165); “The plight of existence will be/Conquered underfoot” (p. 137); “Grow a pot of smiles/From there/Through winds and rains/Withholding worry and passion” (p. 131); and “Lift the historical trauma to the sky/To wash away the bright aspiration of the age” (p. 105); I feel a higher consciousness, or the mantric effect à la Sri Aurobindo, the famous Indian poet-philosopher.

Zhang Zhizhong must have found CHOI a difficult poet to translate, particularly because of his spiritual awareness that evades exact English expression. However, he has completed the challenging task so well that he feels a sense of satisfaction reading Choi’s verses in English. Both poets (the translator is also a celebrated name in contemporary Chinese poetry with considerable experience in bilingual literature, language, and film) manage to pierce “the fence of time and space/and transcend the border of nations” (p. 177 ), thanks to his labor of love and commitment to human unity, peace and universal happiness.

Reading Choi’s poetry is like experiencing an ascent to the height of love, life, nature and simplicity. She reflects an inner culture, the quintessence of the Chinese spirit, which is always inspiring and renewing itself:

“There’s no need to sing songs that sound good
It is not necessary to compose melodious music.
Great passion and emotion.
Bring shine all the way” (p. 159)

He has a sense of purpose and mission: self-discovery and discovery of the world. With the wings of his heart, he flies between heaven and earth (cf. p. 123) and expresses his unity with nature: “Like the wonders of the sea / Like my wonders” (p. 111 ). Elsewhere, she says that with a triumphant heart she files and flits “toward heroism and righteousness/Between heaven and earth” (p 149), and scales a new height in her consciousness: “I will/Try my position/With my sheer/Integrity” (p. 155). She sounds like Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri when she states: “Straight and upright is strength of character” and “To rise and ascend is moral integrity” (p. 147). Evolution for her means awakening to the self, or raising life and existence to a higher level of consciousness. Unity, harmony and love are her keynotes.

Like a yogi, with perfect inner discipline, Choi “takes the pen as a hoe/To plow the fertile ground in silence/So that the seeds may open and sprout” (p. 145). It is with evolving soul consciousness, “with upright beauty” and “unwavering floral spirit” that she seeks to prove her own individual existence.

Choi Lai Sheung’s excellence lies in his freshness in each poem. She does not imitate the past, nor does she think or feel in a pre-established way. By her own admission, she is an “industrial tiller” trying to “achieve perfection along with the inclination and the seasons / To bring fruit upon fruit” (p. 23). Her poetic genius strikes an excellent balance between what is conventionally available in some of the best Chinese lyric poetry and what we have been reading about in contemporary English poetry elsewhere. With her new insights into the nature of human experiences, the reality of “a colorful life,” she richly appeals to our senses, imagination, emotion, and intellect.

Dr. Zhang Zhizhong, as a translator, seems to have worked very hard to demonstrate how well the various materials in Choi’s poem are integrated, and how successful it has been in proportion to its narrow structure. Each word she chooses appears as the right word, if not the right word, to express the poet’s full meaning. The diction and images are not hackneyed but fresh. She is credited with the fact that in her English translation there is no conflict between the sound of the poem and its meaning. The images and ideas are so effectively arranged that any rearrangement would result in the harmonization of the poem or its form and content. I wholeheartedly appreciate the positive excellence of both CHOI and Zhang Zhi. Both deserve worldwide recognition.

–RKSINGH