Jidi Majia

Split-Open Planet consists of a collection of Jidi Majia latest poems, speeches and interviews that, read together, form a compelling portrait of the most popular ethnic poet China has to offer in the past three decades . With the publication of his first poetic volume"Songs of First Love" at the age of 22, Jidi majia won the national poetic prize and established himself as the most popular ethnic poet in China(China's small minority nationalities totalling 80 miilion divided into 55 separate groups), for both critics and his devoted readership. Now, in this book, , he takes us on a figurative journey, exploring the challenges and joys of the human experience through the eyes of the son of a former chief in a remote tribe in Western China. Jidi Majia's prodigious poetic output centers around the ethnic elements, ranging from his Yi identity to humanity. Major variants concern social issues and olden verities in present day China and the world, both practiced with intelligence and skill, earning him a lasting niche with passing years. Vilified with good sense and sentiment, and peppered with Yi animistic beliefs and wisdom, his work adresses elemental themes about conservation of our physical world and cultural diversity, the innocence and sacredness of indigenous cultures, his terrestrial connection to Land and Life etc. Included are his two latest long poems such as The Belated Elegy, praised as "an impressive poetic concept, mirroring the spiritual evolution and wealth of philosophy of the Yi people" as well as The Split Planet, in which he shows himself most gainly as a poet-thinker meditating on the invisible "world war" provoked by the corona-virus pandemic, conveying the tragedy spliting our world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.. Both have been translated into17 languages and have had a sizable impact on reders home and abroad. A poet in action, Jidi Majia has initiated a number of high-profile international poetic events such as Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival, Chengdu Intl Poetry Week etc. These events have turned out to be a worldwide cataclysmic event, an integrative process, fostering a sense of shared ideals among poets from around the world. Thet prove high points for Chinese poets who find themselves united together with their overseas peers by both prosodic and cultural causes.

This collection of Jidi Majia's poetry in Chinese and Nuosu (a lesser-spoken language in China, though there are around two and a half million speakers) has been translated into the three strands of the Scots language: Lallans by Stuart Paterson, Doric by Sheena Blackhall and Shetlandic by Christine de Luca. These translations will be face-to-face with an English translation by the eminent translator from Chinese, Denis Mair, who will also provide a preface on the context of Jidi Majia's heritage and poetry. Jidi Majia's Scots translators have undoubtedly brought his vitality into alignment with the power of the Scots tongues, as does Denis Mair's excellent and erudite rendering into English. Aimed at two linguistic communities and coming from two linguistic communities at the other side of the planet, this collection presents a perfect symmetry in a globalized world where we need a dialogue not only between the powerful but also and perhaps even more rewardingly between the local and marginalized. The infinite is often to be encountered in the circumscribed.

Jidi Majia is one of China's leading indigenous minority poets. In Words from the Fire he explores his Yi heritage in poems that incorporate Yi origin stories, myths, his endangered fire culture, environmental degradation, and the importance of poetic expression in a time of global changes. His writing is consistently tender, celebratory, and respectful of the natural world and the dignity of all people. He has received major awards in China and abroad, and has been translated into over twenty languages in thirty countries. His most recent honor is the Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize and Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK's King's College, Cambridge.

An indigenous poet of the Nuosu (Yi) people of mountainous southwestern China, Jidi Majia is well known and celebrated among the Chinese. But his lyrical and worldly work, though widely published and honored, has not found its voice in English translation in the West. The poems in Rhapsody in Black, presented in Chinese and deftly translated by the gifted and respected Denis Mair, at long last introduce the English-speaking world to this remarkable Chinese writer. The poetry of Jidi Majia is deeply grounded in the myths and oral traditions of the Nuosu minority. It evokes times past but also speaks with eloquence of our global moment. Replete with cultural textures and local idiom, the poems provide an exquisite opening into the Nuosu world. In their ethnic richness, they also resonate with the voices of the indigenous and the dispossessed, from Native American and South American Indian poets to the African American and aboriginal Australian writers preserving and reshaping cultural identity. Jidi Majia's voice sounds the depths of natural, cultural, and spiritual reality. In his poem ""Voice of the Bimo,"" the power of a Nuosu ritualist's expression is reflected in his own: ""In tones both human and divine, it utters // A praise song for birth and death // When it invokes sun, stars, rivers, and ancient heroes // When it summons deities and surreal powers // Departed beings commence their resurrection!""The poems in this volume broaden and deepen our experience of the world - Jidi Majia's and our own.