Sierra Leonean Centre (press release): The Arrival of the Olympic Torch in Freetown Embodied in the Poem “June” and its translation into Krio on Sunday April 2008

The International PEN Poem Relay website was launched last week, March 25 as the Olympic Torch was being lit and as it was starting its journey across Greece towards Athens. At the same time the poem ‘June” virtually left Taiyuan City, Shi Tao’s hometown and travelled to Greece. On March 30, the poem arrived at Greek PEN Centre (at the same time the Olympic Torch arrived in Panathinaiko Stadium in Greece). This relay follows as far as possible the track of the Olympic torch but unlike it, it has not generated so much fuss and controversy, for this one is focused around the poem “June” by the imprisoned poet and journalist Shi Tao and though it may draw as much attention if not more than the torch it does not seek to do so by being disruptive nor competitive.

PEN Centres around the world have translated and recorded “June” in more than 60 languages including krio and, through the internet, the poem is now virtually travelling around the world, from centre to centre, language to language, adding new translations as it goes ending in Beijing to coincide with the start of the 2008 Olympics in August.

Translators and poets at PEN centres around the world have used the spirit of the Olympics to bring to life Shi Tao’s message in the languages of the world,’As the poem spreads from language to language, we spread our concern for freedom of expression in China and the writers who are languishing in its jails.

Through a map of the world the special website www.penpoemrelay.org shows the progress of the poem relay, which takes its cue from the Olympic Torch Relay itinerary.

Just a look at the website through clicking at Sierra Leone you will be alerted to the arrival of the pen poem relay in Sierra Leone tomorrow Sunday 13th April as well as other African countries like Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, South Africa and the Afar Speaking Peoples. On its arrival in Sierra Leone visitors to the site will read and listen to the poem in krio and learn about the work of PEN in Sierra Leone.

The troubles of Shi Tao who is serving a 10-year sentence in prison came through the advanced technology used to monitor, survey and track down individuals who are seen to violate Chinese laws by exercising their freedom of expression on the internet.

He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for "revealing state secrets abroad". For in April 2004, Shi Tao had taken notes on a document read aloud at an editorial meeting of the Dangdai Shangbao (Contemporary Commerce News) at which he was present.The notes referred to a directive issued by China's Propaganda Department instructing the media on how to cover the 15th anniversary of the military crackdown on June 4, 1989 in Beijing shutting down the Tiananmen Square protests.

PEN believes this conviction and sentencing are in contravention to Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (to which China became a signatory in 1998) and Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights.

He sent those notes to an overseas website using a Yahoo! email account. According to court documents, Yahoo! (Hong Kong) Holdings Ltd provided the Chinese authorities with Shi Tao's identity.

The poem ‘June’ was written on June 9, 2004, shortly after the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and just three months after Shi Tao sent that fateful email. It is a meditation on the tragedy of the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in June 4, 1989, which remains a censored topic in China.

Visitors to the website will see the Greek translation text, and hear it recited in Greek. They will also be able to see (and hear) the poem in its original Mandarin as well as in English, French and Spanish, the working languages of International PEN.

Visitors to the website are tracking the poem’s progress around the globe and reading and hearing new translations as the poem arrives at each new centre. The poem has been translated into more than 60 languages including Adnyamathanha, one of Australia’s Indigenous languages; Wolof, one of the most widely spoken languages in Senegal;krio a language widely spoken in Sierra Leone as well as being intelligible aceoss much of West Africa;Tamazight, a Berber language spoken in Algeria, Morocco, Niger, Mali and Libya; Basque; Uyhgur; Tibetan; Chechen; in addition to major languages such as Japanese, Russian and others.

The translation of this poem into the world’s languages is a testament to PEN’s concern for Shi Tao, to its concern for the many other writers in prison in China, and to its respect for the Chinese people and their literary creativity, said Sydney PEN’s Chip Rolley, translator of the poem to English and one of the organizers of the relay.

In the spirit of the Olympics and the international cooperation it embodies, Shi Tao’s poem ˜June” is a torch in its own right, said Swiss German PEN’s Kristin Schnider, also one of the organizers of the relay. It’s a light for freedom of expression, the celebration of poetry and linguistic diversity, and a beacon for writers who are under pressure or imprisoned.

Just last weekend April 6, the poem arrived at English, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic PEN centres with translations and recordings in Gaelic, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, New Norwegian (Nynorsk), Regular Norwegian (Bokmal), Icelandic, Swedish, Persian (from a member of Swedish PEN), Welsh, and English (recited by actress Juliet Stevenson, perhaps best known for her role as Keira Knightley's mother in the movie Bend It Like Beckham).

The poem has visited 28 centres and over 30 languages and recordings have been posted. Centres and locations visited so far include: Greek, Austrian, German Speaking Writers Abroad, Polish, Czech, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatian, Central Asian, Turkish, Kurdish, Chechen Writers, Slovak, Serbian, Macedonian, Slovene, Romanian, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian,and Finnish Centres, and Almaty, Kazakhstan (to coincide with the Beijing Olympic Torch).

As the poem arrives at the Sierra Leone PEN centre, tomorrow, we join the many other voices from all parts of the world in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all writers and journalists currently imprisoned and, we also appeal for the Chinese authorities to continue the massive strides they have made in the economic realm and extend that into promoting humanism especially by putting an end to the practice of detaining, harassing, and censoring their writers and journalists so that that great Chines culture will continue to flourish proudly alongside the freedom-loving cultures of this fastly modernizing and liberalizing world.

According to Yu Zhang, of Independent Chinese PEN Centre and one of the organizers of the relay, as long as Shi Tao and other writers and journalists on PEN’s case list are still behind bars, his poem ˜June” will continue to be a reminder of the reality behind the Beijing Olympic motto ˜One World, One Dream."

Translation to Krio, the unofficial lingua franca in Sierra Leone from Chip Rolley’s English translation, by Arthur Smith member Sierra Leone PEN:

JUNE

Me wan whol laif
Nor go pass “June’
June, di tem weh mi hart die
Weh mi poetry die Weh mi my dear
Die insay wan bathpan-ful wit blood

June, the hot-hot san day burn mi kanda open
Weh day make orlman sabi uskayn wound a wound
June, the fish dem deh swim kormot na di sea weh don red leke blood
Deh go to wan oda place for go take change
June, na im di earth deh shift wansay, di river dem de set mot leke mumu
Letters dem all don pail up bekos nobody nor able for take dem to di wan dem we don
                     die