Yes! It’s that time again, even though it’s never been that time before, for us to join you in an extravagant orgy of creation. Metaphorically speaking, of course; we are classy dames and gents. But this will, with any luck, be the first of a series of writing prompts in which we test our mettle as poets, share the fruits of our labour and generally prod buttock.
The theme this week is translation, although mistranslation would be closer to the truth. Living in China, I have seen more than my fair share of mangled English, usually referred to as Chinglish. It’s a source of humour, of course, but it’s also a wonderful way to reboot your approach to language; a phrase like ‘and she enjoyed a wooden coffin uniquely’, is ridiculous on the surface, but it has the seeds of poetry in it. Today we’ll be exploring the use of those seeds with one of the best tools for mangling language around.
