DISTINGUISHED PROF FANG YAW-CHIEN THE NOTABLE TAIWAN SCHOLAR.

 

Prof. & Dr. Fang Yaw-chien (方耀乾, born in 1958, Tainan, Taiwan) is a leading poet, writer, scholar, and editor in Taiwan. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Taiwanese literature, National Chengkung University. Currently he is Distinguished Professor & Chair of Department of Taiwanese Languages & Literature, National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan. Dr. Fang is also the Director of Research Center for Taiwanese Languages. He has been the presidents, publishers, editors-in-chief of several important associations and magazines. He has published 13 books of poetry, and more than 100 literary treatises & articles. His poetry, written in his mother-tongue Taiwanese, mainly reflects love among human beings and between husband & wife, Taiwanese spirit and history, and a perspective of universal and human existence as well. His poetry has been translated into English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Mongolian, Bengali, etc., and has been read in International Poetry Recitals in severals Countries around the world.  

POEMS BY PROF FANG YAWCHIEN 

Golden Zengwen River

 The golden dusk lies on the glided Zengwen River

Omar Khayyam draws forth a song – gently

Slight tipsy

Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera

Unveiled on a bamboo raft.

Demi’s hair streams toward the west

Like a phoenix.

In her eyes

I smile like a golden red paulownia flower.

 

At this moment, the sugar cane train

Carries the sweetness of hope

From the Sigang Bridge.

As purple thistle flowers grow

On both sides of the river.

The yellow Chinese lxeris flowers wave

And send greetings.

The gold stream

Flows quietly westward

 

We wait for dusk

When the sky fades in pale sunset

And stars appear in the dark night

They scintillate and shimmer.

 

【Notes】Zengwen River is the most important stream in the Jianan Plain, which flows through Hailiao in Anding District and Sigang District in Tainan City.  Views from the bridge are the most beautiful in this area.  During the past, whenever the sun slanted westward, people often stayed on the bridge to see the entire view of the sunset.  A small sugar factory railway would run on the bridge.  During winter, I often watch the sugar cane train transporting sugarcane passing by the bridge.  The sugar industry has fallen, and the railway has been demolished.  The riverside where Demi and I had walked is still there, and the vehicles on the Sigang Bridge are busy as usual.  However, the sugar cane train on the bridge, the paulownia flowers by the stream, the purple flower thistle, and the Chinese lxeris are only seen in the spring breeze kept in my sweet memories.

 

 A Missile Found My Village

 

A bullet found my grandfather.

From that time on,

My grandmother washes her face with tears every day.

A bomb found my father.

From that time on,

My mother washes her face with tears every day.

A missile found my village.

From that time on,

It shuts my lachrymal glands.

 

For thousands of years,

Justice has forgotten to open its door.

For thousands of years,

The Sun has forgotten to give smiles.

For my children’s sake,

I swear

I want to open the door of justice

And let the Sun light up my motherland.

 

 Kalanchoe Garambiensis Kudo

 From formlessness to

The beginning of a sky and a sea,

From nothingness to

Genesis,

I have stood guard over this expanse

Of crystal sea and emerald forest

Since time immemorial.

 

Light of midday sun pauses on the top of my head,

I sit on the cliff,

Smiling a golden grin,

And setting the rules for this universe.

 

When moonlight lifts up my body,

I lean against the hills,

And help the skies carry the stars

With my green frame.

 

Chinese, Dutch and Spanish armadas

Cut across the blue Bashi Channel

In the past 400 years.

Japanese and American bombings

Destroy the wooded chest of Formosa.

And I’m the witness to all the abuse.

 

War and peace

Staged in the same marquee tent.

And I persist in testifying to Cape Eluanbi’s

Timelessness.