When I first met Iris I would find a good restaurant at the end of the
trail to encourage her to go on a walk. That has certainly changed.
It is not just the food but also the enjoyment of being out and observing
what is around her. And that can be seen in her photographs.
Now a walk needs to be planned to allow for the frequent stops to take
pictures! As you will see there is a wide variety of photographs including
our family, friends, buildings and our farm here in Cambridgeshire.
A holiday is an opportunity to look at and capture the character of a
fresh environment.
I wasn’t aware of Iris writing poems until one day here in Cambridge
she mentioned that she had written some poems. I thought oh just one
or two, but no! Already she was prolific and now I gather has written
more than 365.
Her book presents a selection of these along with accompanying
photographs which have some association. Naturally, the poems are in
Chinese her mother tongue and language of principal education.
They show a depth and meaning that can in many ways only be
expressed in Chinese; including in some the ability to read the same
poem right to left and left to right, and from top to bottom – all with a
different meaning, but flowing as a single poem in English does in just
one direction.
Chinese also offers the opportunity to include a lot of puns,
invent new expressions, and to draw on the rich knowledge of
four-character-expressions and the stories that lie behind them.
In an attempt to give English language readers some flavour of this
the book includes a number of ‘translations’.
I feel that they don’t on the whole do justice to the Chinese poems
but at least they are a start for the English reader; and should Iris
wish to explore translations further.
The process was for Iris, or her brother and editor Bruce, to
produce a draft, for me to review the best I could, and then for me
to spend an intense session with Iris, when she would explain each
part of the poem to me in Chinese.
Together we would attempt to produce an English reflection.
Chinese translations to English are notably tricky, and as I have
read 100 people can translate the same poem and end up with
100 versions!
I am sure you will enjoy this beautiful book. And return to it many
times to see both the pictures and to re-read the poems.
編者的話 張肖龍
Lets one tremble with fear
In the faint light spectrum
With enormous lethality
Quickly spreads out, bonding
Suspicious guessing, attaches to the mind
Gradually forms, nightmares
It
Name, thought of fear
Exists or not, depends on you
