If you thought that all writers and poets were peaceful thinkers contemplating the nature of human existence, here’s maybe something that will change that perception. The Swedish ”Nobel” poets Göran Malmqvist and Per Wästberg, both members of the Swedish Academy of literature, the very one that decides who receives the Nobel Prize of literature every year, are on a mission to destroy the Chinese poet Li Li.
In a mail to Per Wästberg, Göran Malmqvist writes about Li Li: ”I’m gonna destroy him, I’m gonna crush him like one crushes a lice with the nail of the thumb", to which Per Wästberg replies ”You can destroy him, with my blessing.”
This after Li Li published a poem that offended Göran Malmqvist since it was about a man with a 40 year younger wife, as it happens Mr. Malmqvist’s wife is 43 years younger than him. This in turn was, as one can deduct from the heated reaction of Mr. Malmqvist, interpreted by Mr. Malmqvist as a direct response to Mr. Malmqvist criticizing Li Li for translating poems by the Swedish poet Tranströmer wrong, translating ”kantarell” (a mushroom) into ”caramel” when translating his poems into Chinese.
Well there you have it, beware of the poets because they have sensitive egos as it appears and sharp claws, I mean pens.
