ABOUT SOPHY
Sophy Chen, Lihua Chen, is a Chinese contemporary poetess and translator. In 1975, she was born in Lueyang County, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province of China. She graduated from English Institute of Xian Foreign Studies University in English Literature. After her post-graduate graduation, she teaches English in a foreign language institute till now.
She is now a researcher of the International Poetry Translation and Research Center, a guest chief editor of The World Poets Quarterly (Multilingual) and a member of the Translators Association of China and the Founder of “Sophy Poetry & Translation Website” and the Chief Reviewing Editor of it. She began to write Chinese poetry in 1989, and she began to write English poetry in 2004 and then she began to publish the original poetry (English or Chinese) and translated poetry (English to Chinese or Chinese to English) officially in newspapers and magazines. She translated a part of poems in the Chinese-English Textbook 300 New Chinese Poems (1917-2012) and World Poetry Yearbook 2013 and she also proofed the two books.
She was awarded the “Legendary Poet” in 2012 by the international renowned English poetry website (poetry.com). In the same year she won the annual “International Best Translator” Award 2012 issued by IPTRC. In 2014, she won the Chinese Contemporary Poetry (2013-2014) Translation Award.
She translated five Chinese poetry collections into English, The Flower Swaying (2014), the original author, Zhao Xingzhong, Tibetan Incense (2014),poetess purple shadow (ZiYing), and The Outlook of Life (2014), Yang Ruopeng, Different Tunes(2014) by poetess Greensleeves, and The Body Forward(2015) by painter TanJun, etc.
苏菲诗歌&苏菲诗歌翻译作品目录：
苏菲英语诗歌原创：
1）I Don't Care Anymore
2）Sonnet 1 After Ten Years
3）Sonnet 4 We Met on a Cross Road —To Ruijie
4）Haiku A Butterfly
苏菲英汉双语诗歌
1）Sonnet 3 Tuberose
十四行诗之三 《晚香玉》
2）Sonnet 12 As if I'd Fallen in Its Waves
NO.12 《十四行诗 仿若跌入你的浪涛》
3）Haiku A Wizened Rose
俳句 《枯萎的玫瑰》
苏菲汉语诗歌英译
1）普冬《睡莲》
PuDong Water Lily
2）杨克 《在白云之上》
Yangke Above the Clouds
3）野鬼 《杀鸡记》
Diablo In Memory of a Butchered Chicken
4）伊沙 《望澳门》
YISHA Watch Macao
5）温远辉 《天上的湖》
Wen Yuanhui The Lake of Heaven
6）唐诗 《那只鸟一定是我的爱人》
Tangshi The Bird Must Be My Lover
7）东荡子《芦 笛》
DongDangzi Reed Flute
8）黄礼孩 《一些事物被重新安排》
Huang Lihai Some Things Are Rearranged
9）大藏 《我从未曾想占有你》 ——《七弦琴的哀歌》之六
Dazang I've never wanted to possess you —The Elegy of the Lyre No. 6
苏菲英语诗歌汉译
1）The Sommelier Says 【USA】Barry Wallenstein
《调酒师说》 【美国】巴里•华伦斯坦
2）Tired Ship [Turkey] Dilek Değerli
《疲惫的航船》 [土耳其]迪莱克•德哥里
3）When the Cloud Perched to Mountain [Turkey] Dilek Değerli
《当云朵栖息在山上》 [土耳其]迪莱克•德哥里
苏菲英语诗歌原创：
(This poem based on the film Maleficent )
I Don't Care Anymore
By Sophy Chen
Go ahead. Turn me into whatever you want
A bird, a worm, I don’t care anymore
You say you need wings; I serve as your wings
You say you need ears; I act as your ears
You say you need a horse; you turned me into a horse
I do carry you wherever you like to go
You are in danger; you turned me into a wolf
I fight only for you with my last strength
You are in danger; you turned me into a dragon
I fight only for you to spit my last fire
You say you need wings; I serve as your wings
You say you need ears; I act as your ears
You say you need a horse; you turned me into a horse
I do carry you wherever you like to go
Go ahead. Turn me whatever you want
A bird, a worm, I don't care anymore
2015-01-02
Sonnet 1
—This is the first sonnet I wrote in English and I wish it is a very good beginning
After Ten Years
By Sophy Chen
In English language not my mother tone
I wrote a poem to you ten years ago
That's the first poem I wrote, as time goes on
I actually didn't know why I did so
You on the video today when I met
It is ten years after I see you again
I may not know why after ten years
Your eyes are still sharp as yours of the past
When you gave English class to your students
As ten years ago you're still vigorous
In a foreign language your confidence
Are always obviously shown in your class
I'm writing you a poem after ten years
Well, I feel on your face some wrinkles
2013-04-07 Guang Zhou China
Sonnet 4
We Met on a Cross Road
—To Ruijie
By Sophy Chen
I’ve searched you on web by all your key words
Thousands of times I failed with great sadness
By accident you appeared in my dream
Last night we met on our way to classroom
But I didn’t know which University it was
It looks like around mountains, trees and cliffs
As if our departure we met on a cross road
With smile in vain at each other we looked
“Where are you going to?” unnaturally I asked
“On my way to be a linguist” You said
“I’d like to be a poet” eagerly I said
With long hair dancing in the wind you nodded
Suddenly I was woken by women gossiping
Out side of window with some dogs barking
2013-10-10 China
Haiku
A Butterfly
By Sophy Chen
A colorful butterfly dropping in a spring poor, winds wetted, lying in my hands
Oh, my dear, The 300 New Chinese Poems, I’ve been wiping your tears by pieces of tissue
But your tears can not be wiped away as if my tears shedding in one thousand years
2014-03-08 In China
苏菲英汉双语诗歌
[China] Sophy Chen
Sonnet 3
Tuberose
As I was young my mom planted some flowers
In front of our old wooden house in springs
In my memory they were peony, China rose…
But what I loved the most was the tuberose
In summer night it’s a nice time to me
You could sit in yard to listen the night birds
Singing on cliffs, insects singing in bushes
And look at the moon moving in night skies
However, while your heart was beating at pace
With insects singing and in the sudden
From nowhere floating a ray of fragrance
In the moon a bunch of tuberose blossoms
As these flowers always bloom in moon nights
Your great poem may be living in its fragrance
2013-10-05 In China
[中国]苏菲
《 晚香玉》
小的时候，我家木屋门前
春天，妈妈总会种些花儿
记忆深处有牡丹，有月季……
我最喜欢的花，是晚香玉
夏日的夜晚，是最美好的
你坐在院子里，听夜鸟们
在悬崖歌唱，虫儿们低吟
看月牙儿，在夜空里流转
当你的心弦，和着虫儿们
的低吟节律地律动，突然
从哪里，飘来一缕缕芬芳
月光下，晚香玉次第绽放
这花儿总在，这月夜开放
你不朽诗篇，芬芳里滋长
2013年10月5日 中国广州
（苏菲原创英汉对照诗歌）
Sonnet 12
As if I'd Fallen in Its Waves
By Sophy Chen
As I was back to my country crossing the bridge
The Jialing River bathing in sun rising always
I would think of you by leaning on its railings
As if I'd fallen in its waves in one thousand years
If I did not cross it I’d see you every day
I'd touch your smile, your lady killer eyes
I thought I'd rather touch your eyes forever
You may not know the bridge I suffered so
In that year I must pass the ancient bridge
As soon as possible,for if I did not cross it
I was quite sure I would drop into the river
And disappear without any echoes forever
The bridge has been damaging almost for 20 years
Where is your charming eyes,the bridge knows
2014-03-11 In China
NO.12 十四行诗
《仿若跌入你的浪涛》
苏菲
每次回故乡，穿过这古桥
嘉陵江沐浴，初升的太阳
斜倚栏杆，我总会想起你
仿若跌入你的浪涛已千年
不过这桥，会天天见到你
触到你的笑容，心醉的眼
我想我会永远触着你的眼
你不知这桥，我饱尝泪水
那年，我必须跨过这古桥
越快越好，如果不过这桥
我深信，我定然深陷江涛
消失，永远没有任何回响
20年来，这桥遭受着毁损
哪有你迷人的眼，桥知道？
2014年3月，中国广州
Haiku
A Wizened Rose
On my desk, a white rose
Wizened, in a black vase
But still emanates its fragrance
(Chongqing) PuDong
Water Lily
You said that painting is the birds chirping, well what about your home
—To Monet
In the afternoon, you woke suddenly, and my brother,
you suddenly woke up. Your warm hands
woke a group of larks chirping
in your eyebrows.
Your brown beard, on the bank of the Seine,
became the dark shade of the dense grasses.
The sun sprinkling straight down, its rays like
the orange juice and red plum flowers
are suddenly blossoming as the rain splashing out
You said that the world is
the sun
the rain
the gravel;
the fire the soil billet made
flying on the back of the birds!
In your wineglass, your wine swinging as the blooming purple Iris,
in a breeze as if
a maiden on waves with an umbrella is giving a flying kiss to the Mediterranean;
You are fire;
You are holding the flame of the poet.
Your world
is nothing besides a sunbeam!
Your eyes are shining alone in the night sky
quietly;
The flowers are blooming sequentially, in your eyes;
Quietly, in your eyes the flowers are singing
as a group of larks; At nightfall,
they paired with a group of nightingales in lighting;
At the moment, you
in the faint moonlight,
in the dawn of Harvard Port and the snow of Ai Biscay Mountains
look like a pair of sailors with the green lily leaves in their hands,
well, your home is located in the heart of Mediterranean.
Surely, there is a water lily,
a huge
water lily.
With red flowers and green leaves, your home is
in human’s impression.
Those birds are
warmly, beating their wings as the Sun Rain beating on the top of house.
Your warm hands, my brother, your warm hands
spins the Europa
and the world into a waltz. The blue sea,
your water lily,
those birds,
those birds, my brother, and your water lily.
Above the clouds
Through the plane's port
I sew not so far away in the distance
The upper left
Another aircraft was in flight
In a very long time
It seemed motionless
Like a pin
Its silver body
Shining lit by the sun
Its move was invisible
I knew it was traveling at high speed
I had to go with it
Like a pair of twin brothers
Several clouds blew smoke rings
Idle strolling
Connubial big birds
Laozhuang of Taoist flied up ninety thousand miles
Also could not imagine this scene
Suddenly who changed their course
The pure blue desktop, the skies
Whose mouse gently clicks
To delete one of the birds
Translated by Sophy Chen 2013-12-25
混语版《世界诗人》季刊 73期
Yesterday afternoon
I went out to buy a chicken
In the farmer’s market
It is moist all around the ground
In the air
The smell of rotten vegetables filled …
The chickens were put into
A big wire cage by a chicken trafficker
Beside it was a hair removal machine
Their feather on the ground around it
When I approached to the cage
They crowded around in horror
I pointed one of them which I wanted to buy
To ask him to weigh it
When he reached
His hands stuck with a few pieces of feather
Into the wire cage
Faced with the extinction the chicken
Was actually motionless
It confirms
A familiar Chinese idiom
—Dumb as a wooden chicken
After weighed
He held
A gleaming knife
Aligning it’s neck
To force a touch
A surge of blood
Was instantly gushing...
Immediately
The chicken
Was thrown into the machine
And then
He fetched a scoop of
Scalding water pouring down—
It screamed again and again
That also sparked those chickens in the cage
A scene of screaming …
Whine
Weakened finally
Until it disappeared in the chilly wind—
He had
Already opened
His machine to stir…
After a moment
A naked chicken
Right under my nose
Was chopped into pieces
At the same time
The chickens in the cage
Had also calmed down
They
Began pecking at the feed
Feeding by their master
Some began to smooth their feather
Some crowed
Some were fighting for food
What a peaceful and happy scene it was
As if their fellows’ fate
Did not link together with them at all
Just now what had happened
Also seemed to be a nightmare
Now
All was calm again…
I don’t know
That the tourism project
Is still being
Travelers in the yacht on the sea of Zhuhai
Watch Macao
13 years ago, I had watched it
I had watched that piece of land
That still belonged to Portugal
Maybe I had done it once
So it had been waving to me in 12 years
I received
An invitation of The Macao International Poetry Festival
Which is my first overseas’ invitation in my life
Having been deliberately put obstacles in my way
I completed all my formalities in many difficulties
Only before I would be checked in at the airport
The relevant department issued a notice
Can’t go…
It was also 12 years ago
It was received back
However, at this moment
At the night with spring wind touching my face
I am only on the dark sea
On the ship’s deck watching Macao
On the territorial waters of my motherland
Watching the territory of my motherland
It is a kind of the unique Chinese peak experience
As if the nostalgia is all Chinese people’s compulsory course
As if there is a masochistic nature of them
2011
Selected in Volume No.69 in Total, February 8, 2013, THE WORLD POETS QUARTERLY
Translated by Sophy Chen 2012-12-17, and Revised by Sophy Chen in 2014-08-31
On earth it must be God takes pity
To make such a lake with drawn tears
In the lake, its water is so salty
On earth than all the tears
The water is such blue as the sky
Exactly the same colors
This is the most merciful lake oh. The sky shows mercy
So it is the closet to the sky
Clouds can touch her by hands
As touching a child
Its waves is soft as a piece of silks and satins
As doing up a child’s hair, let the bud mustered
Hair pouring and stretching around
Prayer flag is blowing in the wind. How quiet oh
Low to the dust of the creeping sound of prayer oh
To the sky it will be able to spread
I kowtow in my whole life to see you, from the lower earth
To polar plateau I came to see you. The West Sea’s vastness,
The lake of heaven. Oh you’re the Holy Grail of the earth
Filled with such a green deep mercy
I come to you, just gently close my eyes
My pain is empty, the dust is also empty
Oh heart, is full of clear emptiness
Just a drop of tear is clear in mercy
Just a lake, rises everyone's mind
Up to the blue sky
The Qinghai Lake, the Lake of heaven
Nobody can take you away, oh
Can take you away from the sky, also can take oh
Away your net your green
Take away your golden garland
But only oh, someone can take away your mercy
A drop of tear’s mercy, vast mercy
God’s mercy
As the bird flew, she flew towards the place I’d lived
with her snowy white feather, as if she was born
in white jade. She flew leisurely at the speed, not fast, not slow
on her face with the sky’s expression.
On her way, she had never screamed, never exaggerated and never flaunted
in her tiny red claws, the story holding
was common. She flew through clouds as a postman
was coming. Flying in the rain occasionally
she shed a flew drops of bitter lovesick tears. She had met
the heavy snow on high mountains, the ice covered on the wide rivers
also met along her way the begonia flowers defeated
countless people. She also experienced
what gloom is , and what steadfastness is.
She flew over her eyes
but never flew over her beaks; she flew over her feather
but never flew over her heart. Even if
there were lightning and thundering ,they would not stop her journey;
even if her wings were old, they also did not affect
her great passion.
When she kept an outlook at me
As if the seawater had cemented to the crystal;
when she called me , as if the mountains
suddenly disappeared without a trace
and shadow.
I greeted her by standing under a peach tree in front of my house
I firmly believe: the bird must be my lover
The first draft, July 2010
The final draft, May 2012
（It Is Published in WORLD POETRY YEARBOOK 2013 (English Version)）
(Translated by Sophy Chen 2013-06-08 and Revised 2014-10-20)
I created her image by a kind of sound;
In Dong Dangzhou, everyone has this capability
To create their lovers by the kind of sound;
With catkins flying, in dense reeds
Everyone can chip the reed flute, and play with it;
On their fingers, a few cuts must be left.
2009-03-31 JIU YULOU
Translated by Sophy Chen 2013-06-02 Revised in 2014-11-19
[Guangdong] Huang Lihai
Some Things Are Rearranged
The world hides in its subtle changes
In the morning, the coffee is wafting its scent, as rays are emitting from the nest
Outside of window, the low olive trees still maintain morning’s moisture
The fine footsteps take your hearing to the distance
Been returning from the sea, the fisherman is sitting in the courtyard
He is watching a bird which is looking for food in a tree. He writes to his motherland
In his dreams. The ocean forgotten, the iceberg collapsed
At this time, the God cherished things are rearranged
[China] Dazang
I've never wanted to possess you
—The Elegy of the Lyre No. 6
I’ve never wanted to possess you, a piece of exquisite artifact
It is only suitable for pouring into my enamored soul
But not for playing to profane; in front of you
I just want to be your reach things
Or a sleepy cell hides
In your glory, let me hear for you
And forget the overturning pain; if those are not enough
Let me ran to call in your weak boundary...
To reject me likes to reject a medieval myth
It’s unforgettable but hard to put it in habitual silence
As the years passing away, the understatement has gradually stopped
In the life's blank, none of a figure
Would be close to you--- my leisurely soul
Inadvertently resides in your romantic themes that needs to be filled yet
Hangzhuo, December 15, 2009
(Translated by Sophy Chen, December 18, 2014)
苏菲英语诗歌汉译
【USA】Barry Wallenstein
The Sommelier Says
The wine is “light but complex,”
as the table of four sit back
and swap smiles
around a bottle of best red —
in this polished tavern fronting
a grand avenue.
Then he, smart suit and a slight bow,
praises the valley, the region, and the year
when the damp of April
extended into May, joined with
arid June and parched July
to generate the sweetest grapes —
“light but complex.”
The diners sip and smile again,
having put to sleep the threat of riots.
The image of a mangled throat in the back alley
is obscured by the rhythm of the servers,
as they glide lightly by each table —
the complexity well-hidden within their grace.
[Turkey] Dilek Değerli
Tired Ship (and another poem)
Window was opened to indoors
the night was a black swan
Tired of melancholy she silenced
the silence of her eyes,
the spider which waked up
damaged its net.
Lost times were crying
outside of the window.
The ship stood out to butterfly sea
absorbing the night to her eyes,
her hair flew to the darkness
with the sound of dancing waves.
The strings of life was going
seperately in water way.
As it was getting wet
the cold wound was a shadow
that was curling to its inside.
Anymore the ship only wants to stop
to make waves tired
and to be a crocodile made of rock
in the tongue of night, somewhat acrid.
[土耳其]迪莱克•德哥里
《 疲惫的航船》（外一首）
窗子一直开到舱内
夜晚是只黑天鹅
她沉默不语，厌倦了悲哀
沉默的余光里
一只蜘蛛突然醒来
捣毁了自己的网
窗外，逝去的时光
在哭泣
航船在海里蝶泳
把整个夜晚纳入眼底
秀发飘舞在漆黑的夜里
海浪声声舞蹈
生活之弦已奏响
在水路里，分离
就像此弦，渐渐被打湿
冰冷的伤口是个幻影
正向体内卷缩
这艘船，不想再航行，只想停下来
让浪花疲惫
做一条石头鳄鱼
在夜晚的舌尖上，有点，辛辣
When the Cloud Perched to Mountain
At the lake time of swans
whiteness glided slenderly
from piano's keys.
In the morning's catching fire lights
there was a tepid smoky movement
and a season of pouring fire.
Colorfull colts were falling
on me from the picture of ceiling.
The wind which could'nt perch to the mountain
gived up blowing
it found white keys
on the attic of the city, took sol*
and put it on my heart,
white sol became black like sharp,
wet eyed wounded colt
which could'nt fall from the ceiling.
When the cloud perched to mountain
on the late evening, the light of music shined
in the depths of the lake,
I saw all the colors on the swan.
At the end, black colt falled into my room
the wind began to blow
at the fragile of fall inside me.
As if pulse of time stop
with a scent of spring which was going mad.
the stone wall of sadness falled down.
When the sky entered inside of me
my pale window have filled with butterflies.
(Translated by Dilek Degerli)
