[Art and Culture] Taiwanese poet Chen Yuhong won the 2022 Swedish Cicada Award for Outstanding Poets in East Asia

Taiwanese poet Chen Yuhong became the second Taiwanese poet to be recognized by the Swedish Cicada Award after Yang Mu.

(File photo, photo by reporter Hu Shunxiang)

[Reporter Tu Yingru/Taipei Report] Taiwanese poet Chen Yuhong won the 2022 Swedish Cicada Award.

Chen Yuhong was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, graduated from the English Department of Wenzao University of Foreign Languages, lived in Vancouver, Canada for many years, and now lives in Taipei.

The judges of the Cicada Award pointed out that her poems have strong musical and emotional characteristics, which is very similar to the Swedish poet Harry.

Like Harry Martinson's poems, it shows a closeness to, awe and a longing for nature.

Chen Yuhong's upcoming poetry collection "Xiaguang and Others" (Hong Fan Bookstore).

(Provided by Chen Yuhong)

In an exclusive interview with this newspaper yesterday (20), Chen Yuhong said that she received a letter from Anna Gustafsson Chen, a Swedish sinologist and a judge of the Cicada Award, on the 19th, informing her that she had won the award, which made her very excited.

"I only started to know the Swedish Cicada Award after Yang Mu won the award. I always felt that this award was far away from me, and I never thought I would win the award." She further mentioned that she had previously passed it through a friend of the Republic of China PEN Club, Anna Hoping to get her contact information, the two later conducted an interview by letter.

She thought it was just a simple interview. A few days ago, she was asked if she would like to receive the Swedish literary magazine "Kavaran" that published the article. Unexpectedly, on the evening of the 19th, she was pleasantly notified of the award.

Please read on...

Since publishing works in the late 1990s, Chen Yuhong has devoted himself to translating Western imagery into Chinese poetry anthologies.

He has published poetry collections "Shine", "Between", "Charm", "Soyin", "About Poems", "Actually, the Sea", "River Into Your Deep Vein", among which "Soyin" won the award. "Anthology of Taiwan Poetry" won the Poet of the Year Award in 2004, and the latest poetry collection will be published in the near future.

In addition, because she has lived in Canada for more than ten years, she is familiar with American and Canadian literature, and has a wealth of translations, including the British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy (Carol Ann Duffy). Anne Carson (Ann. Carson) "Short Talks", American Poet Laureate Louise Glück (Louis. Ge Lück) poetry collection "Wild Iris" and other works.

Chen Yuhong has both creative and translation work. She shared that she can only write poetry if she wants to write it, but she can complete a little bit of translation work every day.

She spends most of her time reading, especially poetry, and even the translated works are entirely poetry.

She said with a smile that translation is like a pianist interpreting a musician's music, and there are many limitations in using other people's works; and the difficulty of creating is that it requires trigger points, "Many people turn a blind eye to some things, but if you have the ability to see and find the trigger points , hold on to it and continue to develop, and continue to accumulate experience for imagery, vocabulary, and express very abstract ideas, so as to achieve creation." She also revealed that she will publish a new book "Xiaguang and Others" in the near future. A long narrative poem, the cover is also her oil painting.

The Cicada Award was established in 2004 to commemorate the Swedish poet Harry C.

Set up by Martinson's 100th birthday, Chinese poets who have won this award over the years include Bei Dao, Yang Mu, Xixi and Xichuan.

Martinson once said that his literary creation was deeply inspired and influenced by Eastern poetry, so the purpose of the Cicada Award is to recognize the creative achievements of East Asian poets.

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