LEE KUEI-SHIEN

LEE KUEI-SHIEN

TAMSUI SUNSET AT EUCALYPTUS BANK

Fibrous roots of Eucalyptus

suspend densely as a wide curtain.

Sunset retreats behind the curtain

with a posture of ardent youth

dedicating his full energy

to the national vitality of Taiwan,

shines half the sky by passion,

performs splashed blood and drown at an end.

After all, the ardent youth is a Phoenix

incarnated into a big bird flying far away,

yet still according to the schedule

making the land of Taiwan glorious once again

with an image of Independence.

TAMSUI GOLF COURSE

What flying farther than the bird

is the white round ball without wings

What more pitiful than tears

is the morning dewdrops that nobody cares about

What more disturbing than the bride’s mood

is the grass wandering who will come to tread on

What more brilliant than record

is the human feelings uninterrupted for a hundred years

TAMSUI OSMANTHUS

International poets come together to visit us

Asian poets in gentle

African poets in enthusiastic

American poets in calm

and European poets in easy.

We walk over the country paths in Zhongliau village

and plant Osmanthus trees along the paths

sharing seasonal qualities from four continents.

The ancient house in the name of Osmanthus remains literary

and resurrected as a hometown of international poets,

there the sky as father and the earth as mother.

The Osmanthus becomes noble due to poetry

with its fragrance staying in the countryside forever,

while the poetry is memorized due to Osmanthus

with its verse circulating in the hearts of poets

broadcasting to all over the world.

TAMSUI

THE HOMETOWN OF POETRY

When I leave Tsmsui

my poetry describes about Tamsui

minds the hometown of my birthplace

When I leave Taiwan

my poetry remembers Tamsui

forgets not the hometown of my ancestors

When I leave the world

my poetry remains in Tamsui

wishes to become the hometown of poetry.

TAMSUI

MASS RAPID TRANSIT

What kind of passengers who

get in and out of the Tamsui MRT station?

The delicious foods of Tamsui yesterday

left an aftertaste for one day.

What kind of passengers who

get in and out of the Tamsui MRT station?

The beautiful scenery of Tamsui today

will remain a visual memory for one year.

What kind of passengers who

get in and out of the Tamsui MRT station?

The precious verses about Tamsui tomorrow

will be persisted as treasure in all life forever.

NOTE: TAMSUI IS A SUBURB TOWN OF TAIPEI CITY, THE CAPITAL

OF TAIWAN.

LEE KUEI-SHIEN

LEE KUEI-SHIEN began to write poems in 1953, joined to establish the Taiwan P.E.N. in 1987, was elected as Vice-President and then President, and served as chairman of National Culture and Arts Foundation from 2005 to 2007. He published 24 poetry books, some of them have been translated and published in Japan, Korea, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Romania, India, Greece, Lithuania, USA, Spain, Brazil, Mongolia, Russia, Cuba, Chile, Poland, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Macedonia and Serbia. 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）. 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）, Chinggis Khaan Golden Medal for 800 Anniversary of Mongolian State（2006）, Oxford Award for Taiwan Writers（2011）, Prize of Corea Literature of Korea（2013）, Kathak Literary Award of Bangladesh（2016）, Literary Prize "Naim Frashëri" of Macedonia（2016）, and "Trilce de Oro" of Peru（2017）, Taiwan National Culture & Arts Prize（2018）, Bandera Iluminada of Peru（2018）and Prime Poetry Award for Excellence by Pulitzer Books of India（2019）.