1. What is your personal opinion about translating a non-native language?
2. Is translation a useful pratice in your experience learning a non-native language?
3. If English is not your first language, and you want to study creative writing in English.
What makes you so passionate about studying English and more so write in English?
4. Do you have to think in Chinese first before translating into English?
5. What is a major culture shock for you?
6. What are some barriers you have experienced learning the English language and culture?
EXERCISE 1A
面朝大海，春暖花开
海子
从明天起，做一个幸福的人
喂马、劈柴，周游世界
从明天起，关心粮食和蔬菜
我有一所房子，面朝大海，春暖花开
从明天起，和每一个亲人通信
告诉他们我的幸福
那幸福的闪电告诉我的
我将告诉每一个人
给每一条河每一座山取一个温暖的名字
陌生人，我也为你祝福
愿你有一个灿烂的前程
愿你有情人终成眷属
愿你在尘世获得幸福
我只愿面朝大海，春暖花开
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
EXERCISE 2A
EXERCISE 2B
“When I was a child, my poetry was childish, it was youthful when I was young, despairing when I was suffering, aggressive when I had to take part in the social struggle, and there is still a mixture of all these different tendencies in the poetry I write now, which may perhaps be at the same time childish, aggressive, and despairing…” ~Pablo Neruda
EXERCISE 3A
EXERCISE 3B
To a Poor Old Woman
munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand
They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her
You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand
Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her
