Madeline Penn
on translating Shu Ting
This poem was translated for Professor Taije Silverman's "Poetry of Translation" course at the University of Pennsylvania. Since I cannot read or write in Chinese, I looked at many translations of the poem, and from those I created a new version. My classmates and professor helped workshop and revise my piece.
about the author
Shu Ting (舒婷) is from Fujian, China. She is usually associated with a school of poets entitled the Misty Poets. Born in 1952 during the Cultural Revolution, she was sent to the Chinese countryside because of her family’s political ideology. She returned to Fujian in 1972 and spent time working in factories for her livelihood. Her poems gained popularity in the 1980s, and around that time, she co-authored a collection of poetry with Gu Cheng, another prominent Misty Poet. Shu is well known in China and beyond for her poems “To the Oak” and “Dear Motherland,” in which conflict and pain are present but positivity blooms. “Mirror” is one of her less well-known poems, and it gives us a glimpse into the poet’s private life.
about the translator
Madeline Penn is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania from New York City, majoring in English and minoring in art history. She loves art, and serves on the student board of the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, as well as on the board of the undergraduate History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
