Jidi Majia is an internationally known Chinese poet and writer of the Yi nationality.
Translated from the Nepali by renowned Himalayan Poet, Yuyutsu RD Sharma, The Mother’s Hand is a marvelous bilingual selection of poems. The book bears testimony to a scared bond that there exists among the poets of the world, defying all borders, languages and creed. Majia evokes the indigenous world of his birth place, Greater Liangshan, Sichuan and of his Yi community along with a a celebration of contemporary China. Yuyutsu considers Jidi ‘a Chinese Himalayan poet’ and see the poet’s affinity with the mountain world as chief fountain of Majia’s creative world. These powerful translations shining with energy of the crystal clear Himalayan Rivers will leave a lasting impact on the readers of this ennobling bilingual book.
“Jidi Majia … not only a wondrous poet but, as a cultural force for the transformation of the world through the infusions of the art of poetry, … deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature, if ever any writer was deserving of it. In all the countries I’ve visited to read my works, I’ve never seen a more radiant homage to Poetry than what China has manifested through the energy of Jidi Majia.”
—Jack Hirschman, American poet
“The poet has opened a door here that any one of us can walk through. What the Snow Leopard and his amanuensis, Jidi Majia, offer is an intelligence that transcends ethnicity, nationalism, even cultural epistemology.”
—Barry Lopez, American author, essayist, and fiction writer on Jidi Majia’s I, Snow Leopard
“Jidi Majia’s poems and literary speeches are lyrical, rich in ideas and beautiful to read. His speeches read like maps of the world, and the road map to the spiritual development missing in the last decades as human beings mark great progress in technology.
—Philo Ikonya, writer, journalist and human rights activist, Kenya
“Jidi Majia has never stopped being what he always was, a great soul who emerged from among an indigenous group in south western China and undertook to bridge his people’s ethos with the realities of the outer world. For Jidi Majia the project of articulating his identities as a Nuosu, as a Chinese, and as a world citizen are in no way mutually exclusive.
—Denis Mair, American poet and translator,
Jidi Majia is an internationally known Chinese poet and writer of the Yi nationality. He was born 1961 in Daliangshan, Sichuan and educated at Chinese Department, Southwest University for Nationalities. He has held several important positions including lieutenant-governor of Qinghai. Currently, he serves as the president of China Minority Literary Association and permanent vice-president of China Poetry Association.
Widely traveled poet, Majia has published over 20 collections of poetry in many languages and has won many important literary prizes, both in China and abroad including the Zhuangzhong Literary Prize, the Sholokhov Memorial Medal, a Certificate for Outstanding Contributions in Poetry from the Bulgarian Writers Association and the Rougang Poetry Achievement Award.
Since 2007, Majia has sponsored the biennial First Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival and chaired the Festival’s organizing committee. He is also director of the review committee for Gold Tibetan Antelope International Award for Poetry. Books of his poetry have been published in English, French, Spanish, Czech, Serbian, Korean, Polish, German and other languages. He has led numerous China Writers Association and China Youth delegations to participate in international activities.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 1st at 6:00pm, DODGE ROOM, EARL HALL Columbia University, Main-Campus at Morningside
Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu Sharma is a world renowned Himalayan poet and translator.
He has published ten poetry collections including, The Second Buddha Walk, A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems, Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems, Nepal Trilogy, Space Cake, Amsterdam and Annapurna Poems. Three books of his poetry, Poemes de l’ Himalayas (L’Harmattan, Paris), Poemas de Los Himalayas (Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain) and Jezero Fewa & Konj (Sodobnost International) have appeared in French, Spanish and Slovenian respectively. In addition, Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty-Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma has just appeared.
Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world and conducts Creative Writing workshops at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.
Currently, Yuyutsu Sharma is a visiting poet at Columbia University and edits, Pratik: A Quarterly Magazine of Contemporary Writing.
Yuyu will share his experiences and recite mantras and prayers to evoke the Himalayan world, especially, Devataatma, a Sanskrit word for the Himalayas, meaning the place where Soul of the God lives. After years of traveling the globe as an itinerant poet, Yuyutsu Sharma has earned the respect and admiration of thousands of people all over the world. Yuyu will unravel the secrets of Himalayan spirituality, inducing the participants to write fresh poetry likely to be published in the second volume of Eternal Snow.
The Reading will be the
The Brooklyn launch of
“Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty-Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma”
will take place.
Editors will share their experiences of editing this mammon anthology.
Select Poets include:
David Austell, Ruth Danon, Carolyn Wells, Catherine Gigante-Brown, Jack Tar, Nancy R Lange, Bill Wolak, Mindy Kronenberg, Su Polo, Robert Scotto, Michael Graves, Bari Falise, Christi Shannon Kline, Dan Szczesny, Kymberly Brown, James Romano, Jack Tar, Marion Palm, Eugene Hyon, Patricia Carragon,
Jan Garden Castro & others will read from the book.
Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma
Edited by David Austell & Kathleen D Gallagher
ISBN : 81-8250-088-5 2017 Paperback pp 309 plus 24 Photo pages
Eternal Snow is a testament to the power of words to inspire, encourage, and heal across vastly disparate cultures and distant places. Over one hundred and twenty-five poets from around the world come together in this anthology to explore their interactions, collisions, and intersections with Yuyutsu Sharma, renowned Himalayan poet, journalist, translator, and editor from Kathmandu, Nepal.The book is a clear example of the new world itinerancy of the modern poet, and the global efficacy of poetry, in that Yuyu’s world travels have touched the hearts and minds of thousands of people who have heard his readings around the world and read his words in print and on-line. Not all the contributors are professional poets. Eternal Snow also captures the poetic voices of a hairstylist, a photographer, a Yoga teacher, a priest, a nurse, and a social scientist. In these pages, a young poet in Kathmandu sees her late father in Yuyu’s face; a social worker conjures the Goddess of the Children while serving the Bhutanese refugees in California; a New York University professor ponders an Asian challenge: setting her house on fire to become a real poet. The results captured in these poems attest to the literary collisions which occur when global poets meet. Eternal Snow is a singular, remarkable, and moving work of art. Includes poetry by John Clarke David Ray James Ragan Ravi Shankar Eileen O’Connor Gorka Lasa Pascale Petit Elena Karina Byrne Chuck Joy Andrew Taylor Amarendra Khatua Ruth Danon Tim Tomlinson Verónica Aranda David Axelrod Tony Barnstone Art Good Times Robin Mets Barbara Novack Hélène Cardona Irene O’ Garden Carolyn Wells Diane Frank Bill Wolak and Others
CONTENTS
PREFACE/5 INTRODUCTION/9
POETRY
All the Way from Kathmandu John Clarke / 23
It is so dark so I made me a torch Tracie Morell / 25
Old Ways Lori Ann Kusterbeck / 26
Oppositely Charged Ions Ravi Shankar / 28
Annapurna’s Mercy Eileen O’Connor / 30
Solar tear Gorka Lasa / 31
Machapuchere (Fishtail Mountain) Pascale Petit / 33
The Mountain man and Cold Fish Chuck Joy / 35
Getting High Lorraine Conlin / 36
Yuyutsu Paul Nash & Denise La Neve / 37
hello yuyutsu Andrew Taylor / 38
for yuyutsu Amarendra Khatua / 39
Ancestral Home Meera Ekkanath Klein / 40
Three Poems Sometime Whose Lodge Is This in the Holy Sky? Who We are Eskimo Pie / 42
His Dark Eyes Christi Shannon Kline / 45
From a Lotus Petal Revigya Joshi / 48
Two Poems Snow After Tagore David Ray / 50
Two Poems Lake Erie: Daughter of Sorrows Failure to Bloom Kathleen D Gallagher/52
Two Poems The Judgment of Innocents Three Kathmandu Poems David B. Austell/56
Parnassus to New York Maria Heath Beckett / 63
Moving Everest James Ragan / 70
Stateside Renay Sanders / 72
Himalayas Shawn Aveningo / 74
El Cartero Del Rey The King’s Postman Juan Carlos Abril / 76
Yak Brothers Tim Kahl / 79
Ode to a Himalayan Poet Dom Kafley / 81
Travel in Solo Class Judy Ray / 83
Below the Tatra Mountains Tera Vale Regan / 84
Four Poems Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines Letter To Scott From The Waterfall Letter From A Secret Mountain Place Last Night In The Himalayas Diane Frank / 86
Of Yuyu Lady K (Kathy Smith) / 92
In the Silence of the Snow Karen Corinne Herceg / 93
Two Poems Ushas Namaste Kate Lamberg / 94
O Holy Bagmati River Penny Kline / 97
Burning on the Pyre Sharon Metzler-Dow / 99
Tibetan Still Life, Pokhara, Nepal M. L. Williams / 102
Two Poems The Durbar of Nepal Pinnacles Robert Scotto / 104
Exile Nicole Barriere / 107
Four Poems To Yuyu On the E train After Yuyu At Gray’s Papaya on Broadway Anne Fritz / 108
Intersections Irene O’Garden / 112
Vocation Ruth Danon / 113
Three Poems The Forehead of the sky To slap my Face A Dawn of Democracy Mary E. Weems / 115
The little Lamp of Mine Roopa Ramamoorthi / 117
The Summoner Dan Szczesny / 119
Seven Stanzas for Yuyutsu Sharma Nancy Aidé Gonzalez / 121
The Circle Nancy R Lange / 123
Four Poems Easter Monday Climb Sleepers Imperfect Human Michael Graves / 126
Pilgrimage to Changu Narayan Eugene Hyon / 130
Meeting Sharma Marcus Bales / 132
Poems Peter V. Dugan / 133
Beasts are awakening… Aixia de Villanova / 134
Hey you there, in a Katmandu bookshop Leah Taylor / 137
Man from the mountains Cristina Querrer / 139
Two Poems New Have you been to Tibet? Incense Bari Falese / 141
Two Poems Vertigo Travelmarvel Agnes Marton / 144
Two Poems Living in Silence Outdoor Yoga Meditation Haiku Patricia Carragon / 147
Long After Dd. Spungin / 149
Ayer anochecía en Katmandú Yesterday Dusk Was Falling in Kathmandu Verónica Aranda / 151
This is Yuyutsu Samantha Bear / 155
Great Divides Darlene Costello / 158
Three Poems City Gardener Veiled Yahrzeit Mindy Kronenberg / 159
Yuyutsu in America David Axelrod / 162
Two Poems Beast in the Apartment The Parable of the Burning House Tony Barnstone / 163
Dhaulagiri Russ Green / 168
After Yuyu Alessandra Francesca / 170
The Quataquatatankua Nabina Das / 171
Sharma Charms Ronnie Norpel / 176
Two Poems This Time in Kathmandu Bishnu’s (pie & chi) Eddie Woods / 177
Two Poems It Will Not Be Apparent from the Crazy Circus
From the Crazy Circus Kim Nuzzo / 180
My Looks Cliff Fyman / 182
One Rupee Barun Bajracharya / 185
The Birth of Sagarmatha Charles Peter Watson / 186
Want Christopher Wheeling / 188
Voor Yuyutsu, For Yuyutsu, Merik van der Torren / 189
After Li Po Art Good Times / 191
All That Falls Robin Mets / 194
Landscape with Snow Erica Mapp / 195
Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma Bill Wolak / 197
Someday you will understand Roxanne Hoffman / 200
Two Poems Wishes Your Smile Civa Bhusal / 202
I’ll simply proceed D. B. Meltzer / 204
Untitled Gypsy Poem Cee Williams / 205
If you die one day Bidur Prasad Chaulagain / 207
Namaste Vicki Iorio / 208
What Matters Barbara Novack / 210
Sherpa Wisdom Mary Ryan Garcia / 211 Blue Panther Grey Theresa Göttl Brightman / 214
A Steady Trundle of Footfalls Steve Brightman / 216
The Dirt the Dirt Jack Tar / 218
Upon Meeting Maya Kymberly Avinasha Brown / 220
Namaste Catherine Gigante-Brown / 221
Meeting Yuyutsu Sharma Marion Palm / 223
Three Poems My Mother Ceridwen Peregrine Pantoum Parallel Keys Hélène Cardona / 225
Pre-Acid André Baum / 229
I’m an “Open Mic Gypsy” Phillip Giambri / 231
Kirat Devin Wayne Davis / 235
Spice Alex Symington / 237 A Poet of Higher Realms Rajesh Siddharth / 238
Translated from the Nepali by renowned Himalayan Poet, Yuyutsu RD Sharma, The Mother’s Hand is a marvelous bilingual selection of poems. The book bears testimony to a scared bond that there exists among the poets of the world, defying all borders, languages and creed. Majia evokes the indigenous world of his birth place, Greater Liangshan, Sichuan and of his Yi community along with a a celebration of contemporary China. Yuyutsu considers Jidi ‘a Chinese Himalayan poet’ and see the poet’s affinity with the mountain world as chief fountain of Majia’s creative world. These powerful translations shining with energy of the crystal clear Himalayan Rivers will leave a lasting impact on the readers of this ennobling bilingual book.
Nirala Publications 