Introduction
Dear Editor,
I was impressed by Marilyn Chin’s translations of Ho Xuan Huong in the April issue. I reveled in the sassy, brilliant wit of this Vietnamese poet. Then I was disturbed to discover a ring of male translators circled around Chin in the July issue, punching, taunting, and kicking her and her translations. Shame. This is plain old ganging-up in any language. It’s nothing new. I’ve seen the same thing in insecure non-native translators and literary critics who claim ownership of any place where they have planted their assertive flags. The commotion isn’t really about quality of translations. Chin has just as much right to translate, perhaps more than anyone involved in this discussion. Essentially, the slam is based on racism and sexism. But Chin has successfully cracked the key and given an ancestral female voice fresh breath.
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She earned her BA from the University of New Mexico and MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Harjo draws on First Nation storytelling and histories, as well as feminist and social justice poetic traditions, and frequently incorporates indigenous myths, symbols, and values into her writing. Her poetry inhabits landscapes...