RETHINKING TRANSLATION: Tracy K. Smith on Translating the Poem of Yi Lei (March 1, 2022)

This Rethinking Translation seminar features poet Tracy K. Smith discussing and reading from her translations of Yi Lei, which she co-translated with David Changtai Bi.
Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, memoirist, editor, translator and librettist. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017-2019. Smith is the author of four poetry collections: SUCH COLOR: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS; WADE IN THE WATER, which was awarded the 2018 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; LIFE ON MARS, which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize; DUENDE, winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; and THE BODY'S QUESTION, which received the 2003 Cave Canem Prize. Her memoir, ORDINARY LIGHT, was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction. She is the co-translator (with Changtai Bi) of MY NAME WILL GROW WIDE LIKE A TREE: SELECTED POEMS OF LI YEI, which was a finalist for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.
A leading figure in contemporary Chinese poetry, Yi Lei was born Sun Gui-zhen in Tianjin, China, in 1951. She studied creative writing at the Lu Xun Academy and received a BA in Chinese literature from Peking University. Yi Lei published eight poetry collections, and her work has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, and English, notably by U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith. She also worked as a reporter for the Liberation Army and as a staff member for the newspaper The Railway Corps. In 1991, Yi Lei moved to Moscow, where she lived and wrote for a number of years.Yi Lei was a recipient of the Zhuang Zhong Wen Literature Prize. She died on July 14, 2018, while traveling in Iceland.
Sponsored by the Rethinking Translation Seminar at the Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University. Hosted and recorded via Zoom on March 1, 2022.
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