Cirrus@Austlit

'How can the innovative spirit of a poet catalyse the breaking of traditional artistic conventions and engender a transformative effect within the realm of poetry? Ouyang Yu is one of the pioneers of English–Chinese bilingual poetry and self-translation in Australia. As a translingual and cross-cultural poet who has long been active in Australia and China, Yu’s linguistic and poetic experiments show a passion for innovation and a rebellious spirit. This article explores Yu’s bilingual poetry by drawing on a new classification method which distinguishes four subtypes of English– Chinese bilingual poetry according to the extent of integration of the two languages: 1. intra-word/character bilingualism; 2. intra-phrase bilingualism; 3. intra-sentence bilingualism; and 4. cross-sentence bilingualism. In this system, either language could be the carrier language and the other the inserted language. This method fills a longstanding gap in the field by comprehensively and explicitly defining the boundaries of mixing these two languages within the genre of poetry. The article also explores Yu’s poetry self-translation by focusing on his advocacy for the freedom of re-creation when translating one’s own works, which includes the retention of the hieroglyphic attributes of Chinese characters in English, as well as Yu’s innovative “direct translations” (Publication abstract)
'