1.Chat, Bui, “One-Rhyme Poems” Giấy vụn , 2009, Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2010 http://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/en-7199#.VG0Oy5PF_-0
This source is a website in which Bui Chat recorded himself reading his own poems. It consists of many different poems, as well as their translations in both English and German.
“Đối & Chiếu” by Bui Chat seems to keep repeating the words “Chúng tôi” which when put into Google Translate, as well as the translation on the website, it means “we” however this word could also mean “our” as well as “us.” This makes the translation of the poem a lot more difficult for us, due to the fact that it does not stick to one translation, but gives us many different ones. This reminds me of Juliana Spahr’s, The Transformation. Her language is very metaphoric as well as poetic. She writes in the third person plural, and completely eliminates herself from the situation, exactly like Bui Chat, as he mixes all the multiple pronouns so that the readers can choose how they want to interpret the poem. She writes in a way in which her readers can visualize the situation of her characters, adding repetition within her text giving her story the literal meaning of their journey. This is exactly how I am interpreting Bui Chat’s poem and his different techniques; this is what I am taking from the poem.
This source is mainly for people who enjoy skimming through readings, rather than trying to receive a lot of information. This source only gives the reader a literal translation of the poem, without elaboration or analysis. There is only the translation as well as a recording of Bui Chat himself reading his poem in Vietnamese.
2. Binh Nugyen, interview by Margaret Siskind, Đối & Chiếu, December 1st 2014.
After a lot of searching, Margaret Siskind finally found a Vietnamese poet named Binh Nugyen that would help with the translating and interpreting the poem, “Đối & Chiếu” by Bui Chat. She briefly described the story of what was happening in the poem. A man meets a woman that he once knew. She is bruised, and a prostitute. However it could be interpreted in many different ways. He offers to buy a boat from her, but she declines and asks why he didn’t offer when she was young and pure.
Nugyen revealed the different themes within the poem. There is a sense of purity and light, but also dark pain; there are changes in seasons, and juxtaposing atmospheres. Meeting with her really helped my group and I understand the literal translation within this poem. Margaret’s interview with her could evidently be the story behind those Vietnamese words.
- Fig.1. John Casablancas, Pho Grand, photography, 750×1000, Available from: Learning Portfolio, http://portfolio.newschool.edu/is1shiftfall14/2014/11/19/week-10-subs-alia-john-maggie/
Our group decided to go to a Vietnamese restaurant, to further investigate the culture, as well as have the waiters translate the poem for us in English as we hoped that they would be natives of Vietnam, similar to what Molly Weigel did.
John Casablancas took this image at the restaurant, and we decided that it would be fitting to use this image because it gave us all the opportunities to explore the food and culture. However as it turned out that no one in the restaurant spoke Vietnamese. The owner of the restaurant was Chinese, as well as the rest of the waiters.
This experience has a key connection with Spahr’s pronoun ambiguity in The Transformation. She writes in third person plural, and essentially describes herself as a separate person to eliminate herself from the equation. And that is what happened to us, we were stuck in a Vietnamese restaurant, however we were not able to locate a native speaker, and therefore we only received a sense of culture but could not receive a visual translation.
