Reviews

Yingelishi: Sinophonic English Poetry and Poetics by Jonathan Stalling

spacestationtrustfund's review

4.0

Jonathan Stalling’s Yingelishi is a book of poetry in Chinese and in English. Stalling writes a line of English poetry, then matches its sounds to those that appear in the Chinese language. Those sounds produce their own separate meaning. The end result is a poem existing in multiple languages and in no languages at all, with multiple meanings that can be read multiple ways. The above example is what inspired me to read the book: 早上好 (Simplified Chinese for "good morning"), "good morning," "gū dé mào níng" (pinyin), 孤德貌宁 (alone / virtue / appearance / tranquil), "Even alone, the moral one / appears peaceful."

According to Schleiermacher, "the genuine translator" is a writer "who wants to bring those two completely separated persons, his author and his reader, truly together, and who would like to bring the latter to an understanding and enjoyment of the former as correct and complete as possible without inviting him to leave the sphere of his mother tongue." I'd be curious to know what Schleiermacher would think of Yingelishi.

shaunnow38's review

4.0

Absolutely masterful. The transliteration of Chinese to English and back through again resonates in the heart and mind. I found myself piecing together meanings and words like a torn road map, much like the "character" in the second half of the opera.

Stalling manages to capture the movement of his adopted medium (the phrasebook) and it's inherent storytelling, even with his translation and transliteration. The story goes from meditative to haunting to sorrowful. There are glimpses of joy and understanding, a sort of revelation. Stalling's work is engaging to hear and incredibly linguistically tactile.