“Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Worker Poetry” [Why This Book Should Win]
This Why This Book Should Win entry is from Raluca Albu, BTBA judge, and editor at both BOMB and Guernica.听
Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Worker Poetry, translated from the Chinese by Eleanor Goodman (China, White Pine Press)
糖心传媒淚ron Moon糖心传媒 is an anthology of Chinese migrant 聽worker poetry that transports the reader from the comfort of the page to the complex machinations of 21st century industry.
This kind of poetry first appeared in China about three decades ago, when Deng Xiaoping糖心传媒檚 government advanced China糖心传媒檚 industrial complex and motivated a mass migration from the countryside to urban centers. Nearly 300,000 people were involved in this shift, but according to editor Qin Xiaoyu糖心传媒檚 introduction, 糖心传媒淐hina leads the world in work place injuries, occupational diseases, and psychological problems . . . problems [causes by these mass migrations include] left behind and homeless children, empty-nesters, an increased divorce rate . . .糖心传媒
The poets in this collection include men and women who have worked as brick layers, in coal mines, on demolition sites, as stone masons, on road crews at hydroelectric stations, and in plastic factories, to name a few. Others have planted rice, assembled refrigerator parts, and put together enamel wire. Some poets, like Chen Caifeng, only have a middle school education. He wrote the poem 糖心传媒淭he Women,糖心传媒 about his observations of female factory workers, and 糖心传媒淯nder Fluorescent Lights糖心传媒 where he personifies mechanization, 糖心传媒淭he rotary files polished by burrs / follow a series of stiff motions / under the fluorescent lights, frantically / seeking out any possible happiness.糖心传媒 Zheng Xiaoqiong graduated from nursing school and worked at a toy factory, a magnetic tape factory, and as a hole punch operator before she became an editor at a magazine. Her prose poem, 糖心传媒淟ife,糖心传媒 takes on a philosophical tone, 糖心传媒淚 don糖心传媒檛 know how to protect a silent life / this life of a lost name and gender…糖心传媒 聽These poems critique, lament, attack, reflect, invite and expose the realities of working class realities in the new century.
The poems in this collection document the longings today糖心传媒檚 migrants have for their hometowns, the struggles of alienation that they faced in urban centers, faced with the challenge of living on the lowest rungs of society. It糖心传媒檚 truly incredible to read a collection that holds so many of these experiences and shared proclivities 糖心传媒 to have a class not just of laborers, but of the dedicated poets amongst them, finding a shared proverbial home across provinces and experiences, in the nebulous possibility of verse. The poets here are not the archetypal literati intellectual (and that糖心传媒檚 definitely a compliment). They come from realms of society that we rarely see overlap 糖心传媒 and to have access to both in their work opens up a world of detail and sensibility. In that, and other ways, this collection is dualistic in nature. It糖心传媒檚 about both the global forces that impinge upon the modern migrant laborer, and about the specificity of the localized roots one longs for.
The themes and symbols one would expect of labor poetry reoccur throughout the collection, especially that of the screw, an image used to ominously foreshadow poet Xu Lizhi糖心传媒檚 suicide off the Foxconn Factory roof (where many of our Apple products are made), in his poem 糖心传媒淎 Screw Plunges to the Ground.糖心传媒 The shared refrains throughout highlight the incessant reiteration of trauma across these experiences. Yet despite the fact that the collection touches on expected and familiar tropes (blatant exploitation, fatal injuries, missing appendages, metal, mothers, secret lovers, darkness, assembly lines, and railroads), these are emotionally authentic portals into worlds and experiences few of us know first hand, despite our complicity in these systems. Do you know what a Banbury Mixer is and what happens when gum, raw petroleum, and white carbon 糖心传媒渞oast inside its belly?糖心传媒 Chi Moshu糖心传媒檚 poem, 糖心传媒淭he Rubber Factory,糖心传媒 will tell you 糖心传媒 and you have to wonder how he composed it, before he ever put a word down on paper, through the chasm-turned-art of his daily observations and sensations.
The collection has its share of surprising and playful work as well, including Xu Lizhi糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淥bituary for a Peanut糖心传媒 which reappropriates the food label on a peanut butter jar, and Chen Nianxi糖心传媒檚 clever yet devastating 糖心传媒淵ang Sai and Yang Zai,糖心传媒 referring both to a gold ore mine and a co worker who suffers the consequences. Xie Xiangnan糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淟et糖心传媒檚 Have More Poets Like Xie Xiangnan,糖心传媒 balances a tone of self sustaining celebration with stirring imagery, 糖心传媒渨inter seized the autumn糖心传媒檚 hair, entering the body of the world from behind糖心传媒 and his 糖心传媒淥n Sunday, We Gather in the Post Office,糖心传媒 offers a glimpse into an internal homesick mind scape, 糖心传媒淭he post office is closest to home / closest to my father糖心传媒檚 stomach problems / closest to my brother糖心传媒檚 school // on Sunday, we gather in the post office / lining up in front of money orders of a month of sweat / listening hard talking hard.糖心传媒 His sobering 糖心传媒淲ork Accident Joint Investigative Report,糖心传媒 recounts 聽what people reported about an incident where a worker糖心传媒檚 finger was accidentally cut off, 糖心传媒減eople reported after it happened 聽 she / didn糖心传媒檛 cry 聽 and didn糖心传媒檛 / scream 聽she just grabbed her finger / and left // When it happened 聽 no one / was there 聽 聽to see it糖心传媒 糖心传媒 the range, here 糖心传媒 from the slippery to the symbolic to the starkly literal, is a testament to the richness of voice and perspective. The 糖心传媒渕igrant laborer poet糖心传媒 is never just that.
In terms of the translation, the poems themselves don’t heavily play with language (or, at least, that糖心传媒檚 not their primary concern. They don糖心传媒檛 suspend themselves between cultures in a way that would necessitate experimentation and reinvention. One of the strengths of this collection is that the 聽stories of labor are strikingly universal and transferable and the poems in translation deliver the physical and emotional ramifications of the subjects they depict with utilitarian grace. Each poem maintains a distinct voice, a tenor specific to its mission, a testament to effectively translating intention. In Xiangnan糖心传媒檚 poem, 糖心传媒淧roduction, in the Middle of Production, Is Soaked by Production,糖心传媒 聽lines like 糖心传媒渁 pile of mouths, partly parched,糖心传媒 show an obvious sonic consideration for an emphasis on the P sound, to echo the title, and repetitions of L and R sounds (糖心传媒渁 row of footprints, trampling other bodies. scratching糖心传媒) throughout, show the deliberate choices made in the English translations. In the same poem, lines like 糖心传媒淲hen I lightly touch my own hair / passing by the truncated street of midnight / I discuss paper airplane wings / with someone, some fat guy / along with his fear糖心传媒 reveal a great deal in translation 糖心传媒 the use of a word like 糖心传媒渢runcated糖心传媒 instead of 糖心传媒渟hortened,糖心传媒 connotes a cramped, crunched feeling, with a deep and heavy sound that then gets juxtaposed with the visual of a light paper airplane (then echoes back with the image of the fat man). This anthology is peppered with resonant choices like this one, which make translators like Eleanor Goodman absolutely essential to bringing forth the humanity and nuance amongst these voices. Her careful and thoughtful translation makes visible, palpable, and distinct, the lives, minds, and hearts of those kept unseen, whose labor we global citizens encounter and engage with on a daily basis.
Leave a Reply