SHELLY BRYANT divides her year between Shanghai and Singapore, working as a poet, writer, and translator. She is the author of eight volumes of poetry (Alban Lake and Math Paper Press), a pair of travel guides for the cities of Suzhou and Shanghai (Urbanatomy), and a book on classical Chinese gardens (Hong Kong University Press). She has translated work from the Chinese for Penguin Books, Epigram Publishing, the National Library Board in Singapore, Giramondo Books, and Rinchen Books. Shelly’s poetry has appeared in journals, magazines, and websites around the world, as well as in several art exhibitions. Her translation of Sheng Keyi’s Northern Girls was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012, and her translation of You Jin’s In Time, Out of Place was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2016.  You can visit her website at shellybryant.com.
Shanghai International Studies University (1)
2018 April 9, Shanghai
we sit in the sunlit garden
a few moments between obligations
to share a simple lunch
placing the plastic spoon
into the empty yogurt cup
you reach up
and sweep a leaf from my hair
then you ask
how I might translate
another old, worn cliché
~
Shanghai International Studies University (2)
2018 April 14, Shanghai
settled into my favorite corner
huddled over a project
translating a text on a familiar topic
I grow suddenly uncomfortable
the author’s explanation unfolding
in my own language
          from my own pen
telling why one must never
allow his slave to wash a vase
it being, after all,
worth more than she
if it breaks, the cost
will not be recouped
even after she is sold