Irish literature aficionados explore the poetic beauty of W. B. Yeats

A symposium on Irish literature, focusing on William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), explored the Irish bard's poetry from a cross-cultural perspective, with a view to facilitating cultural understandings between the Chinese and the Irish.

This year's symposium was themed "The Poetic Bridge in Cross-Cultural Context: An Exploration of Literary Aesthetics in Yeats' Poetry," and was sponsored by the Shanghai Public Relations Association and the Consulate General of Ireland on Friday at the consulate, following the success of the inaugural session last year, held on June 16, Bloomsday, focusing on James Joyce's "Ulysses."

Ireland has been home to numerous literary figures, among them Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney, whose influence is felt way beyond the Irish border, with a considerable following in China.

Participants were greeted at venue by Irish tunes played on the fiddle, accompanying a recital of Yeats' "Down by the Salley Gardens" in both Chinese and English.

It was followed by a short documentary on the Irish Nobel laureate's life and works.

In a video address, Dr Nicholas O'Brien, ambassador of Ireland to China, cited the importance of Yeats' works in furthering Sino-Irish cultural exchanges. David Murphy, Consul General of Ireland in Shanghai, also expressed his hope of enhancing mutual cultural understanding through the event. Dan Boyle, Lord Mayor of Cork, Ireland, extended his congratulations to the symposium through a video talk.

Addressing the symposium, Sha Hailin, president of the Shanghai Public Relations Association, emphasized the importance of familiarizing the Chinese audience with the charm of Irish literature in the future, as well as introducing Chinese literary works to Ireland, to further mutual exchanges in literature and culture as part of the effort to build an exchange platform conducive to mutual appreciation and common prosperity.

Sun Jian, a Fudan University professor, interpreted Yeats' poem "Long-legged Fly" from multiple dimensions, hinting at the esoteric, inner complexities inherent in the verses, while Wang Lan, a professor at Shanghai Foreign Studies University, unravelled the elegiac element behind his drama "The Land of Heart's Desire" (1894), by scrutinizing his poem "The Dreaming of the Bones" (1919).

The speakers also interacted with students from Fudan University and the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics on topics such as cross-cultural dissemination of Yeats' poem, and the global expression of indigenous elements.