About the Relay

The Poem Relay seeks to raise awareness about freedom of expression in China in a unique way – through poetry and translation.

Over the past several months, centres of International PEN have arranged translation and recording of the poem ‘June’ (Liuyue) by the imprisoned Chinese poet and journalist Shi Tao, into over 60 (and counting) of the world’s languages.

Through this website with a map of the world and a relay itinerary (similar to the Olympic Torch Relay itinerary), the poem is virtually “traveling” around the world, from centre to centre, language to language, adding new translations as it goes and ending in Beijing at the time of the 2008 Olympics.

Visitors to the website can track the poem’s progress and read and hear new translations of the poem as it arrives at each new centre.

Visitors can learn more about Shi Tao and the almost 40 other Writers in Prison in China.

Visitors to the website can also Take Action, by signing our online petition, donating to International PEN to assist this project and others like it, and participating in International PEN’s other campaign activities. The website will be continually updated with new information and activities.

The Poem Relay draws together several aspects of PEN -- freedom of expression, translation and linguistic diversity -- to send the world a message that only PEN can send:

It supports Freedom of Expression. The poem is by an imprisoned writer, who is a main case of PEN, and is itself about a forbidden, censored topic.

• It celebrates Poetry and Linguistic Diversity. The translation and "relay" demonstrate the diversity of languages, literatures, and writers in the world.
• The Poem Relay is one of a number of actions organized as part of International PEN’s 2008 China Campaign in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. Information about other aspects fo PEN’s campaign can be found soon on the International PEN website.

How we did our translations

Every translation is necessarily a departure from the original. To translate from an intermediary language increases the distance a poem must travel to another language. We urged all participating centres to make every possible effort to engage individuals to translate directly from the Chinese. In cases where this was not possible and a translator needed to rely on an intermediary language such as English, we provided centres with a literal word-for-word translation guide, so the translator would be aware of the choices made by the English translator. We also encouraged centres to seek out native Chinese-speaking poets for advice. In all cases, it was left to the centres to decide who should translate the poem and which language(s) they should translate it to.

The International PEN Poem Relay was organized and managed by Chip Rolley, Kristin T. Schnider and Zhang Yu. It is based on an idea by Chip Rolley, who translated Shi Tao’s “June” into English, and developed by him and Kristin T. Schnider.

Chip Rolley is an editor and writer, with a special interest in literature and Chinese politics and culture. Chip’s writing has appeared in The Griffith Review, The Wall Street Journal (Asia), The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Bulletin, Vogue (Australia), Rolling Stone (Australia), and others. A former Vice president of Sydney PEN, he was also Chair of the International PEN Search Committee (member, ex officio, of the International PEN Board). Born in El Paso, Texas, he now lives in Sydney, Australia.

Kristin T. Schnider is a freelance writer who has published four books; her essays and short stories have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines in Switzerland. She is President of the Swiss German PEN Centre and member of the board of International PEN. She was born in London and raised in Switzerland where she lives.

Dr. Yu Zhang, or Zhang Yu in Chinese order, is a Chinese citizen with permanent residence in Sweden. He was born in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province in central China on April 27, 1952, and graduated at the Wuhan Institute of Chemical Technology in 1977, beginning his career as a teaching assistant there. On the last day of 1981, he arrived in Stockholm to study at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and got a Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry in 1987 and continued as a research scientist there. In addition to his scientific research, he has been engaged in promoting Chinese culture overseas while defending freedom of expression in China. In the wake of the Beijing Massacre in 1989, he took part in the founding of “Supporting the June Fourth Movement in Sweden”, a human rights association of Chinese students. In 1990, he founded Nordic Chinese, a Stockholm-based monthly newsletter, as its publisher and editing director, and later also as its chief editor until it ceased publication in 1997. In 1999, he joined Tong Xun (later renamed Nordic Chinese Communication), an Oslo-based monthly Chinese magazine, as its editor, and became its chief editor in 2002. In the same year, he joined the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), a branch of International PEN, as the coordinator of its Writers in Prison Committee (2003 - ), and its Secretary-general (November 2005 - March 2008). Since February 2007, he has been denied re-entry to the China mainland, including flight transit via its international airport; he was twice expelled by the police in Beijing and made to fly back to his original departure region. This was based only on an oral “decision by a superior”, alleging his activism endangered national security. It was said later that such activism referred to his position and activities at ICPC.