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Tibet

A yak stands on a snowy hill

Alexandr Frolov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Man Who Can Never Go Home

There’s a Tibetan saying that an old man’s country is like an old bird’s nest.

Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie & Pema Tsewang Shastri

The book covers of Animals in Our Days, Brisbane, Flowers of Lhasa, Radio Siga, Linea Nigra, and...

The Watchlist: May/June 2022

By Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Tibetan, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Croatian.

Unfamiliar Riverbank: Contemporary Chinese Religious Poetry

By Eleanor Goodman

The Tang Dynasty poets translated by the Beat Generation poets are often associated with the totality of “Chinese poetry.”

August-2019-Chinese-Poetry-Interview-with-Tsering-Woeser-Boyden-Woeser

Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser (left) and translator Ian Boyden

The Presence of the Dalai Lama’s Absence: A Conversation with Tibetan Poet Tsering Woeser

At a time when Tibet is largely ignored by the international community, Woeser vividly conveys what it is like to experience the destruction of her culture.

Close-up image of white lily

Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash

Absent, Or Not Absent

By Tsering Woeser

right in the center, / sat the completely empty dharma throne, / richly decorated, the heart’s dream waiting / like a balloon floating through desire

Translated from Chinese by Ian Boyden

Multilingual

Perhaps: Love Poems

I dare not use mortal eyes to contemplate you

Translated from Chinese by Chloe Garcia Roberts

Multilingual

Flight: An International Exquisite Corpse

By Pema Bhum, Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Krys Lee & Kanako Nishi

Four writer/translator teams work together to create a single story in multiple languages.

Translated by Elizabeth Bryer, Kang Daehoon, Tenzin Dickie & Allison Markin Powell

Joyful, Painful, Surreal: Life As a Parent

By Karen M. Phillips

The intensity of the parent-child relationship, with its high emotional stakes, life-and-death responsibility, and inescapable physical proximity, makes for powerful stories.

“It’s Us and Them”: Writing from and about Divided Countries

By Susan Harris

In the current environment of relentless political strife . . . debate deteriorates into name-calling; partisans morph into zealots, complex issues are reduced to binary terms, and hostility seethes just beneath the surface.

Picture of a shrine room in a Buddhist monastery

Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash

How Dorje Tsering Saved Tibetan

Everyone knew that the way to become a revolutionary was through the Chinese language and not Tibetan.

Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie

At the Borders of Homeland and Exile: Tibetan Literature

By Tenzin Dickie

These days, we have Tibetan writers writing poetry, essays, short stories, and novels in Tibetan, English, and Chinese.

Badges with the image of Mao Zedong

Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wink

It seemed to them as if the Chairman were sharing with them a playful and secret sign.

Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie

Multilingual

Two buildings facing each other

Photo by Silas Hao on Unsplash

The Dream of a Wandering Minstrel

Tsering the Wandering Minstrel traveled the road in search of a dream.

Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie

The Agate and the Singer

By Kyabchen Dedrol

Daughter of Brahma, you have suffered.

Translated from Tibetan by Tenzin Dickie

Multilingual

Over the River

Water as smooth as brocade flowed with boundless dignity toward somewhere over the horizon.

Translated from Chinese by Li Guoqing