Jamaican poems published in China for first time

Poems from Jamaica, the first-ever Jamaican poetry translated and published in China, was released in March 2020.

The poems were written by Paulette A. Ramsay, a poet and professor at University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. They were translated into Chinese by Hou Tao, a professor from Taiyuan University of Technology in China's Shanxi province.

Written originally in English, the collection features poems that explore a vast array of subject matters and thought-provoking ideas. The Chinese renderings of the poems are also highly readable and manage to retain the meanings and rhythms of the original poems.

Ramsay's poetry centers around her reflections on life and people. Her representative work Star Apple Blue and Avocado Green, which was published by Ian Randle Publishers in 2016, showcased her talented poetry skills and keen observations on life.

Being a Latin-American writer, she often offers historical perspectives of Afro-Hispanic societies in her writing. Her poetry tends to deal with the history and future of the oppressed set against the setting of daily life.

She combines kindness, genius, inspiration, female empowerment and her desire for social justice and passing a good cultural legacy to the younger generation.

The University of West Indies at Mona and the Taiyuan University of Technology have developed close ties since they jointly built the first Confucius Institute in Jamaica in 2009. By selecting and translating these poems, with some verses specially created to commemorate the unforgettable moments of bilateral cooperation, the translator Hou Tao endeavored to enhance bilateral educational collaboration and people-to-people exchanges. Its publication is also intended to offer vivid experiences of Jamaican life and provide materials for national and regional research.

(CHINA.ORG.CN)