Chile, a Spanish-speaking country in South America facing the Pacific Ocean far across from Taiwan, is unfamiliar to many Taiwanese. Despite this, two selections of Pablo Neruda's love poems can provide a connection between the two countries: Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada and Cien Sonetos de Amor. Other than that his poems are rarely available in Taiwan. To know Chile, we can imagine it, perhaps, only through the two translations-- until a Taiwanese poet landed there at the onset of his journey. In October, Lee Kuei-shien took a 36-hour flight from the autumn Taiwan to the early spring Chile, arriving in Santiago on an exchange with international poets by following Tras las Huellas del Poeta, or the poet's footsteps. Touring La Chascona, Oscar Castro Cemetery, Gabriela Mistral Memorial and Cemetery, Los Vilos, and other places, Mr. Lee translated the formal visit into a lyrical sentiment embedded in his 20 Love Poems to Chile and presented it to Taiwan and the world. It is not difficult to imagine what love poems thematically deal with. They allow us to catch a glimpse of the strong Chilean passion, for example, from Neruda's love poems or from Mistral's Sonetos de la Muerte, which he dedicated to her lover. Inspired by the Chilean local atmosphere, Lee made a cross-century dialogue with that Chilean passion through his poems, in which the word "lover," a very particular term in Lee's eyes, has morphed into Chile. The lines centered on this "lover" are both abstract and concrete, but rich in a variety of signifiers. Each of Lee's twenty love poems seems to be an integral part to the rest, but can be seen as mutually independent. The Guide recommends starting from "Forget Me Not" in order to explore his inner thoughts, which are associated with the romantic temperament of the Chilean dramatist Oscar Castro. In the poem Lee was recalling a recitation that he was performing in Castro's cemetery, where after a brief communication with Castro, Lee was struggling to say "Forget Me Not" at the time of farewell.
About the Author: Lee Kuei-Shien, graduated from Taipei Institute of Technology, he began to write poems in 1953, became a member of the International Academy of Poets in England in 1976, and joined to establish the Taiwan P.E.N. in 1987 and was elected as Vice-President and then President. His poems have been translated and published in Japan, Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Romania, India, Greece, Spain, Mongolia and Russia. Published works include "Collected Poems" in six volumes (2001), "Collected Essays" in ten volumes (2002), "Translated Poems" in eight volumes (2003),"Anthology of European Poetry" in 25 volumes (2001 2005) and others, including "Golden Treasury of Modern Indian Poetry" (2005) in which the poems by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam are included. Awarded with Merit of Asian Poet, Korea (1994), Rong-hou Taiwanese Poet Prize (1997), World Poet of the Year 1997, Poets International, India (1998), Poet of the Millennium Award, International poets Academy, India (2000), Lai Ho Literature Prize and Premier Culture Prize, both in Taiwan (2001) and nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, by International Poets Academy, India. He also received the Michael Madhusudan Poet Award from the Michael Madhusudan Academy (2002), Wu San-lien Prize in Literature (2004), Poet Medal from Mongolian Cultural Foundation (2005), Oxford Award for Taiwan Writers (2011) and Prize of Corea Literature (2013). He has attended the international poetry festivals held in Cuba, E1 Salvador, Korea, Japan, India, Mongolia, Nicaragua, U.S.A. Lee is awarded KATHAK Literary Award 2016 (National Poetry Festival and International Literary Conference) and Prize of Corea Literature in 2013.