I Name Him Me: Selected Poems of Ma Yan

by Ma Yan, Stephen Nashef (Translation)

Poetry. Translated by Stephen Nashef. The poetry of Ma Yan, born in 1979 in Sichuan province, has garnered increasing attention in China since her untimely death in 2010. She stands out as a poet who is simultaneously playful and fearless in her explorations of subjectivity and inter-subjectivity, writing intimate yet arresting poetry of great emotional breadth. Her work delves into questions of gender, mental health, death, desire, physicality and our personal interactions to show how they all shape the raw experience of existence. I NAME HIM ME is the first collection of her poetry to appear in English.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2021

About the author

Ma Yan (1979–2010) was a Chinese Muslim born in Chengdu, Sichuan province. A writer of both poetry and prose, she graduated from Peking University in 2001 with a degree in classical Chinese literature. While in university she helped to organize the first Weiming Lake Poetry Festival, an annual event that continues to this day, and in 2000 co-founded the culture website, New Youth. In 2003 she returned to Chengdu. She passed away on December 28th, 2010 during a visit to Shanghai.

Reviews

[juch]

i really liked the repeated poem form that was a gushy block. they had a forward momentum that pushed thru ecstasy and heartbreak! like on a rollercoaster, as in the last poem. i was impressed by her invocation of big concepts/labels - suffering, hedonists and other ists (者). reading the chinese was very hard i definitely want to read both the original + translation again. thank you kathleen!

[Sam Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, haunting poetry that resists the urge to revel in misfortune.

There are a few awkward bits but those are explained in the translators note as having been exceptionally hard to translate from Chinese.