黃裕邦(Nicholas Wong),2016年憑藉英語詩集 奪得美國LGBTQ文學獎——Lambda Literary Awards 男同志詩歌組別首獎,同年榮獲香港藝術發展獎藝術新秀獎(文學藝術)。2017年獲邀參與曼徹斯特國際藝術節廣播項目“One of Two Stories, Or Both”,並於2018年5月參與何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術行動於紐約·古根漢美術館舉行的展覽。
"We say no man is an island to keep bodies away from carapace, arthritis from the world atlas.
Even when someone is an island, no one has turned a body into a ferry, hairs into life jackets.
No life jackets on the island: the back is the largest plateau to hang a tattoo, to hold demurrals.
Let's assume the island is then colonized. Peacocks open a spectrum of feathers to a noise
and mate in a foreign way. A satellite scans the island, defines the circularity. Semi-
closed eyelids also show trust. The island's population grows as the self splits. The first self shawls itself
because the second self self-actualizes too much. Locals call it cukou, meaning exit, or close enough, fouled mouth."
// Archipelago
The second poetry collection in a row that just did not work for me. At least in the last case of Chen Chen, there were some favourites. Here, I could not be more indifferent. All these poems passed me by, there was no stimulation either on the intellectual or the emotional level. Sure, there were bits and pieces here and there that were enjoyable to read, phraseology, especially in the case of wordplay, and multiple meanings that were impressive, but there is nothing I would be gushing about many days later. "Trio With Hsia Yü" Is the notable exception and maybe "Light Deposit" at the very end in terms of poems that really made me pause. Vuong says, "Wong writes through the body as a way of finding a new hierarchy for the way bodies are seen and valued." I suggest you go see it for yourself. It won a Lambda Award after all.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
I've heard about the book because of the Lambda Literary Award that it won and bought the book purely to support a fellow LGBTQ Hong Konger, but was pleasantly surprised by how great the poems are. There are one or two poems explicitly set in Hong Kong; the rest were quite universal, though the word choices aren't as accessible as I thought they would be. All in all, I think the Lambda award is well deserved.
Una muy grata sorpresa. Algo leí de Wong y la verdad es que soy un poco fácil así que fui y me lo compré. Un acierto. Me gusta cómo revitaliza esta sinergia beat de mezclar lo “elevado” con lo mundano. Es como si el despertar espiritual del sujeto cohabitara con un depósito bancario o la preparación de un sushi. Me gusta eso, y hay poemas donde lo logra muy bien (shoutout para “How to Refund your Identity”). También me impacta el conflicto con el cuerpo y la corporalidad, cómo se disecciona y cómo esto puede suponer una disección del sujeto. Qué hermoso título.
An intriguing poetry collection, I am very inclined towards some of Wong's turn of phrases and would absolutely read more of his works
My favourite poems in this collection are: Post colonial zoology Self portrait of Eeyore, to pooh Mr. Five steps on expository writing: origin of hydrophilia Light deposit
It has been awhile since I have read a poetry collection, but reading Wong's Crevasse has reminded me how deep poetry can reach, wriggle, and slide into your subconscious, tripping fuses and setting off forgotten mines. Wong's poetry feels personal. There are stories hidden behind simple words, there are emotions hidden behind jargon, all stemming from the perspective of someone on the precipice, someone between worlds. The collection is beautifully arranged and demands to be read from cover to cover, but a few pieces that really stood out to me were: "If We Are a Metaphor of the Universe" ("If a fault can be undone like I am undone"), "Trio with Hsia Yu" (begins brilliantly with: "I entered the wrong room/and missed my reincarnation."), and "Aqua" (Loss now/a count noun,/concrete/like beans). An intriguing collection, accessible and thought-provoking all at once.
I rated it a 5-star not only because of the beautifully written poems but also because Nicholas Wong is the first Chinese writers winning this LGBT literary award. This tells us that we shouldn't narrow our perspective to the Western world in this minority topic.