酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

To Write a Poem in English


To write is to grow the words inside your heart,
To reap the sentences matured by the muse of desire.
To write is to take your clothes off with words,
To expose yourself in the rhythm of the stanzas.
To write in English is to cross borders of the words,
To emigrate from the ideographic to the alphabetic.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

To Write a Poem in English


To write is to grow the words inside your heart,
To reap the sentences matured by the muse of desire.
To write is to take your clothes off with words,
To expose yourself in the rhythm of the stanzas.
To write in English is to cross borders of the words,
To emigrate from the ideographic to the alphabetic.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Lake]

也是一种诗观。

问好。

[[Lake]]

也是一种诗观。

问好。

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Lake:

Thanks for your comment. My greeting to you.

Generally speaking, writing is hard; writing in a foreign language is harder than I ever thought it would be. It is always an ongoing struggle for bridging the gap between what I think, what I'm going to write, and what I'm able to write. Writing, sometimes, seems to me as displaced on the broken line between the promised and lost way of thinking. Worse, the awareness of and concern about my intended readers may distract me from expressing my own thoughts. Writing is, as it always has been, a toiling act of expressing myself.

During the writing process, in the strain of translating one spontaneous idea or heartfelt feeling into a grammatically and semantically correct sentence, I have to, due to a lack of enough active vocabulary or literary expressions, simplify the way I think and write, and I don’t have the intellect or courage to dwell on the small intense emotional turmoil which is of huge importance for self-writing; thus I have to put on a kind of writing persona.


For the time being, for me,

Writing in English is a necessity.
It's not for fun,
Though it can be fun;
It's not just a twist of heart and mind,
Though it can be torture.
The point to write in English is
To find a middle ground
Between pleasure and necessity.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Lake:

Thanks for your comment. My greeting to you.

Generally speaking, writing is hard; writing in a foreign language is harder than I ever thought it would be. It is always an ongoing struggle for bridging the gap between what I think, what I'm going to write, and what I'm able to write. Writing, sometimes, seems to me as displaced on the broken line between the promised and lost way of thinking. Worse, the awareness of and concern about my intended readers may distract me from expressing my own thoughts. Writing is, as it always has been, a toiling act of expressing myself.

During the writing process, in the strain of translating one spontaneous idea or heartfelt feeling into a grammatically and semantically correct sentence, I have to, due to a lack of enough active vocabulary or literary expressions, simplify the way I think and write, and I don’t have the intellect or courage to dwell on the small intense emotional turmoil which is of huge importance for self-writing; thus I have to put on a kind of writing persona.


For the time being, for me,

Writing in English is a necessity.
It's not for fun,
Though it can be fun;
It's not just a twist of heart and mind,
Though it can be torture.
The point to write in English is
To find a middle ground
Between pleasure and necessity.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[anna]

I think I am brave since when I start to write,I don't think too much about the culture difference, just let my voice to speak...

then after, I will rethink and revise it...

Sometimes I guess I need the courage to break the ice.

Regards,


Anna
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

I think I am brave since when I start to write,I don't think too much about the culture difference, just let my voice to speak...

then after, I will rethink and revise it...

Sometimes I guess I need the courage to break the ice.

Regards,


Anna
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Anna:

Surely, you’re a brave and diligent writer.

Have you seen Finding Forrester? It’s a film about the inspirational relationship between a reclusive writer and a gifted, yet troubled teenager, who is inspired to be a writer of his own voice.

I think that, in Chinese writing, especially if you write a literary work, you don’t write in plain speech; if you do so, you’re definitely looked down on as a third-rate writer. A lot of words and phrases are deeply rooted in a century-old literary history of allusions and should be skilfully yet not self-inventively, used in the context of the Chinese classic literary tradition.

To write in English requires a different way of thinking, more focusing on the expressivity and innovation of words and phrases. During the course of my adjustment to English writing, I have slowly begun to squeeze the Chinese literary mentality out of my mind, and I have learned to write down what I try to say, truthfully and innovatively. As Chinese American writer Ha Jin once said to John Thomas in Emory Magazine, “It was like having a blood transfusion, like you are changing your blood."

I am going to write
On a site of possibilities,
Faced with patches of daily experiences
And snared by quilts of past memories
I pick up the threads of my life in transition
And stitch together the moments of sorrow and joy,
Unflaggingly and carefully
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Anna:

Surely, you’re a brave and diligent writer.

Have you seen Finding Forrester? It’s a film about the inspirational relationship between a reclusive writer and a gifted, yet troubled teenager, who is inspired to be a writer of his own voice.

I think that, in Chinese writing, especially if you write a literary work, you don’t write in plain speech; if you do so, you’re definitely looked down on as a third-rate writer. A lot of words and phrases are deeply rooted in a century-old literary history of allusions and should be skilfully yet not self-inventively, used in the context of the Chinese classic literary tradition.

To write in English requires a different way of thinking, more focusing on the expressivity and innovation of words and phrases. During the course of my adjustment to English writing, I have slowly begun to squeeze the Chinese literary mentality out of my mind, and I have learned to write down what I try to say, truthfully and innovatively. As Chinese American writer Ha Jin once said to John Thomas in Emory Magazine, “It was like having a blood transfusion, like you are changing your blood."

I am going to write
On a site of possibilities,
Faced with patches of daily experiences
And snared by quilts of past memories
I pick up the threads of my life in transition
And stitch together the moments of sorrow and joy,
Unflaggingly and carefully
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Lake]

Eric,

A necessity?
What makes you think so? Do you
write in Chinese, too?

Cheers,
Lake

[[Lake]]

Eric,

A necessity?
What makes you think so? Do you
write in Chinese, too?

Cheers,
Lake

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Lake:

In s nutshell, it is necessary for me to write in English in order to see, think, and write differently, thus broaden the horizon of my world and knowledge, which is the main reason I emigrated from Taiwan to Canada.

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said,” If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” In line with this sort of thinking, if we wrote in a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”


Since my emigration to Canada five years ago, I have struggled, wrestled, and been frustrated with learning English, and I eventually came to a conclusion two years ago: I, a non-English speaking person aged over forty, had no way of mastering two languages at the same time; therefore, I needed to break with my Chinese self and to re-build a new English self in order to achieve my self-chosen goal -- becoming a writer.


To write is to transport
What is felt inside you
Into an art form outside you

To write is to translate
What is haunting your heart
into the hunt for another's mind

To write in Canada is to transform
What is bound within two solitudes
Into a dialogue of engaging other solitudes
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Lake:

In s nutshell, it is necessary for me to write in English in order to see, think, and write differently, thus broaden the horizon of my world and knowledge, which is the main reason I emigrated from Taiwan to Canada.

Ludwig Wittgenstein once said,” If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” In line with this sort of thinking, if we wrote in a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”


Since my emigration to Canada five years ago, I have struggled, wrestled, and been frustrated with learning English, and I eventually came to a conclusion two years ago: I, a non-English speaking person aged over forty, had no way of mastering two languages at the same time; therefore, I needed to break with my Chinese self and to re-build a new English self in order to achieve my self-chosen goal -- becoming a writer.


To write is to transport
What is felt inside you
Into an art form outside you

To write is to translate
What is haunting your heart
into the hunt for another's mind

To write in Canada is to transform
What is bound within two solitudes
Into a dialogue of engaging other solitudes
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[Lake]

Appreciate your candidness, Eric.
But don't you think two languages can benefit each other?
You are a person of thought.

[[Lake]]

Appreciate your candidness, Eric.
But don't you think two languages can benefit each other?
You are a person of thought.

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Lake:

Yes, they definitely can benefit from each other. But, the problem is you need to cultivate the literary lands of these two languages before reaping the benefits. For the time being, I’m mere a beginner of English writing.

Many writers have written in two languages, usually first in their first language and from a certain moment on, often after emigration, in their adopted language. In most cases, writing in the adopted language sharpens their mind and refines their writing style.

In the case of Samuel Becket, during a period of poverty and privation in the late 1940s, Beckett began writing in French. The discipline of writing in his adopted language allowed him to escape both the elaborated, erudite lyricism and the literary and cultural heritage that he had inherited from the likes of James Joyce. By writing in French, then, he was searching for a styleless manner of expression, and in doing so achieved the appreciation that until then had evaded him. The French language lent itself to Beckett's new pared down style and saved him from the stylistic extravagances available in English.

I hope that, through painfully learning and practicing writing in English, one day I can be liberated from and nurtured by the Chinese literary tradition, freely and effortlessly.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Lake:

Yes, they definitely can benefit from each other. But, the problem is you need to cultivate the literary lands of these two languages before reaping the benefits. For the time being, I’m mere a beginner of English writing.

Many writers have written in two languages, usually first in their first language and from a certain moment on, often after emigration, in their adopted language. In most cases, writing in the adopted language sharpens their mind and refines their writing style.

In the case of Samuel Becket, during a period of poverty and privation in the late 1940s, Beckett began writing in French. The discipline of writing in his adopted language allowed him to escape both the elaborated, erudite lyricism and the literary and cultural heritage that he had inherited from the likes of James Joyce. By writing in French, then, he was searching for a styleless manner of expression, and in doing so achieved the appreciation that until then had evaded him. The French language lent itself to Beckett's new pared down style and saved him from the stylistic extravagances available in English.

I hope that, through painfully learning and practicing writing in English, one day I can be liberated from and nurtured by the Chinese literary tradition, freely and effortlessly.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[星子]

I am glad and surprised to know your thoughts and aim.

I want to be a writer too, but I need my full-time computer job to support it.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

I am glad and surprised to know your thoughts and aim.

I want to be a writer too, but I need my full-time computer job to support it.
_________________

[ericcoliu]

Hi! 星子:

I’m surprised and, oftentimes, frightened by my own thought and goal – being a writer.

At this stage of my struggle with my life goal,

Being a writer means being an apprentice to the dead,
An explorer into the land of the sacred texts;
Because the dead shape the past, control the stories,
And thus reveal certain kinds of truth.

Being a writer means being a religious devotee who embarks on a journey looking for words to reveal the truth of a life story of his/her own.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! 星子:

I’m surprised and, oftentimes, frightened by my own thought and goal – being a writer.

At this stage of my struggle with my life goal,

Being a writer means being an apprentice to the dead,
An explorer into the land of the sacred texts;
Because the dead shape the past, control the stories,
And thus reveal certain kinds of truth.

Being a writer means being a religious devotee who embarks on a journey looking for words to reveal the truth of a life story of his/her own.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Writing Poetry

Writing poetry is a journey looking for words
To weave a life story of your own,
As well as a way of doing experiments with language
To make sense of the chaotic Tower of Babel
As you walk into words
That have awaited you to enter into them,
You re-fashion yourself in a textual form,
Being reminded of the wonder
That is inside each of us.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Writing Poetry

Writing poetry is a journey looking for words
To weave a life story of your own,
As well as a way of doing experiments with language
To make sense of the chaotic Tower of Babel
As you walk into words
That have awaited you to enter into them,
You re-fashion yourself in a textual form,
Being reminded of the wonder
That is inside each of us.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul