SPLIT-OPEN PLANET

Poetry by Jidi Majia

(translated from the Chinese)

With an introduction by Jack Hirschman

$35.00 / ISBN 978-1-58790-579-7 / 246 pages / paperback / 6” x 9” / illustrations

ABOUT THE BOOK

      As a poet, Jidi Majia stands out from the crowd, even though his poems were forged by the widespread cultural currents of our new world era. He writes in Chinese, but he belongs to the eight-million-strong Yi ethnic group, otherwise known as the Nuosu, who live in mountain areas not far from Vietnam and Thailand. Thus we can say that there is an additional layer of distance between this poet and our culture. Even so, European readers can readily understand his poems.

      The Yi People speak a language which belongs to the Tibeto-Burmese language family, and they have an independently developed writing system. Their culture preserves archaic elements related to animistic beliefs. Even now the Yi People put their trust in shamans (which they call Bimos). Bimos preside over weddings, cremations and ceremonies of childbirth. They make offerings to deities of mountains, trees, boulders and the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. The Yi language and writing system is now being taught in schools, but this has not always been the case.

      Jidi Majia’s mentor was China’s eminent poet Ai Qing. In his youth Jidi Majia pored over works of China’s classical and twentieth-century literature, as well as Western literature. Yet his heart has remained tied to his own ethnic group—to that primal world view handed down by the Yi Minority which, being unknown to the world’s major populations, holds an appealing novelty. Jidi Majia earnestly sympathizes with every ethnic group whose fate is beset by difficulties. His poems are extremely expressive, free-wheeling and rich in metaphor. In his frequently hyperbolic language and his “roots-seeking” orientation, he has an affinity with post-modernist currents. Jidi Majia is strongly attached to use of folkloric elements, in a way that approaches magical realism. His writings are informed by the poetic practice of Africa, Europe and America. Readers will readily notice a strong stylistic connection to Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and poets of the “Negritude” school. In his works we can also trace a literary connection with eastern European poets, from Czeslaw Milosz to Desanka Maksimovic. He links up these Western sources with Chinese and Far Eastern tradition, especially with ageless myths and legends from the Yi People, to achieve wondrous and unexpected effects.

      For readers who endeavor to understand the era we live in, Jidi Majia’s poems offer food for thought which will surely strike a chord of shared feeling.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      A Yi Chinese, one of the most representative poets in contemporary Chinese literature, Jidi Majia’s literary career has spanned over thirty-five years and has won international acclaim by having 90 collections of poetry and prose translated into 40-odd languages. He at present serves in the capacity of vice-chairman of China Writers Association.

      Major works include: The Song of My First Love; Self-portrait and Other Poems; The Dream of a Yi Native; The Eagle’s Wing and the Sun; Fire and Words; I, the Leopard… ; From the Leopard to Mayakovsky; 24 Sonnets Dedicated to My Mother; A Great River.

      Major literary honors conferred: Top prize for the 3rd Edition of New Poetry Contest; Guo Moro Literary Prize; Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Prize; Sholokhov Memorial Medal for literature; Rougang Literature Prize; Mkhiva Humanitarian Award; Gold Award for Master Soul of Chinese Poetry of International Chinese Poets Pen; Homer European Medal of Poetry and Art; Excellent Poetry Prize for Romania Contemporanal Magazine; Bucharest City Poetry Prize; Silver Willow Lifetime Achievement Award at Xu Zhimo Poetry Festival, King’s College Cambridge; the Janicki Literary Prize; the Tadeusza Micinskiego Prize; the Medal of Zygmunta Krasinskiego; the Guayaquil International Poetry Prize.

      Jidi Majia has initiated a number of high-profile international poetic events such as Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival, Qinghai International Poets Tent Roundtable Forum, Liangshan & Qinghai International Poetry Week, Chengdu International Poetry Week, etc.