Tietjens, Eunice
(Chicago, Ill. 1884-1944 Chicago, Ill.) : Schriftstellerin, Dichterin, Journalistin
Name Alternative(s)
Tietjens, Eunice Hammond
Subjects
Index of Names : Occident
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Literature : Occident : United States of America
Chronology Entries (5)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1917 |
Lowell, Amy. An observer in China : Profiles from China by Eunice Tietjens : review [ID D32294]. I read that book through three times before I put it down, and the next ay I read it again. Then I waited some weeks and read it once more ; the charm remained. That charm of something new, sincere, an original thought expressed personally and vividly. Profiles from China is strong and free, and is evidence of a rare psychological insight. As interpretations of Chinese character, these poems are of only the slightes interest ; it is as pictures of the fundamental antagonism of the East and the West that they are important. The poet makes no pretence at an esoteric sympathy which she does not possess. Her complete sincerity is not the least of the volume's excellencies. Only in the section 'Echoes', is there the slightest preoccupation with the native point of view, and although there is here much Chinese decoration, such as 'the fifth day of the fifth month ', 'the tiny footfalls of the fox-maidens ', and 'the hour of the horse ', still these poems remain rather as exercise in the Chinese manner, than as an intimate fusing of the author's ego with that of China. There is not a word too much in these poems. They are sharp and beautiful, and extraordinarily satisfying. One of the best is 'On a Canton River Boat'. Mrs. Tietjens is more than modern or 'new' ; she is herself. Her kind of poetry is distinctly hers, a perfectly natural utterance. This book deserves high praise and is an earnest of future accomplishment. |
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| 2 | 1919 |
Tietjens, Eunice. The most-sacred mountain of China. In : Rittenhouse, Jessie B. ; Kerouac, Jack. The second book of modern veerse. (Boston : H. Mifflin, 1919). http://www.bartleby.com/271/83.html. SPACE, and the twelve clean winds of heaven, And this sharp exultation, like a cry, after the slow six thousand steps of climbing! This is Tai Shan, the beautiful, the most holy. Below my feet the foot-hills nestle, brown with flecks of green; and lower down the flat brown plain, the floor of earth, stretches away to blue infinity. Beside me in this airy space the temple roofs cut their slow curves against the sky, 5 And one black bird circles above the void. Space, and the twelve clean winds are here; And with them broods eternity—a swift, white peace, a presence manifest. The rhythm ceases here. Time has no place. This is the end that has no end. Here, when Confucius came, a half a thousand years before the Nazarene, he stepped, with me, thus into timelessness. The stone beside us waxes old, the carven stone that says: 'On this spot once Confucius stood and felt the smallness of the world below'. The stone grows old: Eternity is not for stones. But I shall go down from this airy place, this swift white peace, this stinging exultation. And time will close about me, and my soul stir to the rhythm of the daily round. Yet, having known, life will not press so close, and always I shall feel time ravel thin about me; For once I stood In the white windy presence of eternity. |
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| 3 | 1920 |
Aiken, Conrad. Body and raiment, and Profiles from China by Eunice Tietjens : review [ID D32393]. Of Profiles from China there is more to be said [than Body and raiment] : one may argue pro and con as to whether it belongs more suitably or more profitably in the category of prose or poetry ; and one has to deal, however that question is argued, with vignettes sufficiently sharp, with artistic effects which are tantalizingly of a dubiousness. For what one gets back to ultimately in the case of Mrs. Tietjens is the lack of any very marked idiosyncracy of sensibility. This lack must have been present from the outset, and it is one which she will find it difficult if not impossible to overcome. One by no means implies, in taking this position, that she lacks talent : we are involved, indeed, simply in drawing what is at best a very dubious line between talen and genius. Of talent it is evident that Mrs. Tietjens has a great deal. Her sense of rhytm is firm, rich, varied, and is combined with a well-developed sense of orotundity, the sense of sound-values as distinct from rhythm-values. In this regard her work compares very faborably with that done by any other woman now writing verse in America. But this, unfortunately, is insufficient : one demands more ; one demands just that so slight amount of difference, just that personal variation on the skillful norm, which sets the true artist apart. This Mrs. Tietjens lacks, when one examines her work closely, in rhythm, and even more conspicuously in other regards. What is it that her sensibility has given her to say, what is it that her frustrations have compelled her to say ? Nothing – one confesses reluctantly – very unique. The perceptions are good, normal, sometimes charming, but never very acute ; the moods are recognizable, but never rich. And all this is tantamount to saying that Mrs. Tietjens seldom gets very far from a skillful rhythmical treatment of the sentimental in terms of the commonplace. |
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| 4 | 1924 |
Tietjens, Eunice. Japan, Korea and Formosa [ID D32289]. [Auszug]. This is a rich photographic source, covering Japan and her two colonies: Korea & Formosa. A very good look at Japan and her islands, people, Yokohama, Tokyo, of the beaten path, Mt. Fuji, strange food, "The human ants in Nagasaki," holy places, Osaka, Nagoya &c. Korea: the land of Hats. Formosa, the Beautiful. An excellent pre World War II guide. "For a great many years this island of Formosa was a terror that haunted all the Western sailors who sailed in those seas. The sea around it is the birthplace of terrible tropical typhoons, which spring up suddenly and sweep helpless ships onto the sharp cliffs, where they are dashed to pieces. And, before Japan tamed her tiger, if a few poor half-drowned sailors managed to land, they were usually captures by the savages who lived there and killed by them. Their heads were preserved as trophies and their bodies eaten, for theses savages were cannibals." |
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| 5 | 1933 |
Tietjens, Eunice. From China . Chinese poems in English rhyme by Ts'ai T'ing-kan : review [ID D32292]. Lovers of Chinese poetry will welcome this book, not because the translations are masterpieces, for they are hardly that, but because the book as a whole is so extraordinarily civilized, and suited to the content of the poems themselves. Partly the charm lies in the beautiful physical make-up, which gives on each page, above the English translation, the original Chinese text in satisfying black characters ; partly it lies in the sense of the personality of the translator in introduction and notes, the distinguished admiral and diplomat Ts'ai T'ing-Kan, whose background is a combination of the ancient Chinese classical education and a college curriculum in America. Even the delightfully sly Chinese humor is here, in a sober-seeming reprinting, 'less the Chinese periods of history may mean but little to the Western reader', of a list of the kings of England at the time of the T'ang dynasty. As the admiral points out, during the first two centuries of the T'ang there 'was no mention of the kings in England'. The poems translated are all quatrains of the T'ang Dynasty from an anthology of the period. With a number of them I am familiar in other translations, but many are, I believe, new in English. The translations themselves, while few of them are magical, are exact and scholarly and quite capable of passing on to us pleasure in the originals. They are at their best, I think, in those poems which call for a certain sprightliness and humor. Altogether Admiral Ts'ai, the first Chinese who has attempted such a translation, has done a surprisingly good job. |
Bibliography (4)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1917 |
Tietjens, Eunice. Profiles from China : sketchag in free verse of people and things seen in the interior. (New York, N.Y. A.A. Knopf, 1917). http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/13118/pg13118.html. |
Publication / Tiet3 |
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| 2 | 1924 | Tietjens, Eunice. Japan, Korea and Formosa. (Chicago, Ill. : Wheeler, 1924). (Burton Holmes travel stories). [Das Buch ist in keiner Bibliothek in Europa zu finden]. | Publication / Tiet2 |
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| 3 | 1930 |
Tietjens, Eunice. China. Ed. by Burton Holmes ; text by Eunice Tietjens and Louise Strong Hammond, illustrations by Burton Holmes. (Chicago, Ill. : Wheeler, 1930). (Buton Holmes travel stories). [Bericht der Reise von Eunice Tietjens nach China und Japan 1915-1916]. [Das Buch ist in keiner Bibliothek in Europa zu finden]. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Burton-Holmes-Travel-Stories-China-Eunice-Tietjens-1935-NH-/271476891827. Contents A story and a proberb Things to be considered first The port of Hong-Kong The geography of China Canton and South China What they wear in China The honored dead Children of the flowery kingdom The great days Houses that turn inward The eyes of the houses Chinese government Work and workers Tea Shanghai – a treaty port Golden temples Central China Some Chinese customs The great Yangtze-kiang Junks and junk folk The art of the ages Fun and festivals Queer beasts What the Chinese eat Too many mouths The charm of Pagodas Confucius, the great teacher Chinese gardens Family life The boy and the pomegranate tree Industry and commerce The fields of China Cormorant fishing Games, rhymes and stories Northern ChinaIn the land of handicraft Strange gods Country filk Peking, the former capital of China Palaces like those in dreams Railroads Graceful roofs Women and their work Walls, great and small Gates and doorways Chinese conveyances Beautiful bridges The Ming tombs Camels, The ships of the desert Foreigners in China Ideal domestics Shops and shoppers Peddlers of all sorts Schools, both old and new A strange language Chinese music A peaceful people The awakening of China |
Publication / Tiet1 | |
| 4 | 1933 | Tietjens, Eunice. From China . Chinese poems in English rhyme by Ts'ai T'ing-kan : review. In : Poetry ; vol. 42, no 3 (June 1933). | Publication / Tiet4 |
Secondary Literature (2)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1917 |
Lowell, Amy. An observer in China : Profiles from China by Eunice Tietjens : review. In : Poetry ; vol. 10, no 6 (Sept. 1917). http://www.jstor.org/stable/20571377 |
Publication / Tiet6 | |
| 2 | 1920 |
Aiken, Conrad. Body and raiment, and Profiles from China by Eunice Tietjens : review. In : Poetry ; vol. 15, no 5 (Febr. 1920). http://www.jstor.org/stable/20572458. |
Publication / Tiet5 |