吉狄马加，男，彝族，1961年6月出生，四川凉山人，1982年毕业于西南民族大学中文系。现任中国作协副主席、书记处书记，第十三届全国人大代表。吉狄马加是中国当代著名的少数民族代表性诗人，也是一位具有广泛影响的国际性诗人。诗集《初恋的歌》获中国第三届新诗（诗集）奖；1994年获庄重文文学奖；2006年获肖洛霍夫文学纪念奖章和证书；2014年获南非姆基瓦人道主义奖；2017年获2017年度波兰雅尼茨基文学奖；2017年获剑桥大学“银柳叶诗歌终身成就奖”。2007年创办青海湖国际诗歌节，担任组委会主席和“金藏羚羊”国际诗歌奖评委会主席。作品被翻译成三十多种文字，在近五十个国家或地区出版发行。

吉狄马加的诗作风格大气壮阔。著名诗人阿多尼斯谈到：“吉狄马加通过诗歌创作，似乎试图认识人的各种奥秘和困窘，以及人与他者、与宇宙的关系。”

著名作家阿来指出：“吉狄马加的诗作中既有彝族文化的根基，也充分吸纳了中国古典汉语，以及西方现代优秀诗歌营养。吉狄马加的诗歌具有很强的世界性，缘于其对自己所出身的民族文化有充分的体认，并由此出发，锻炼出世界性的眼界和诗意的高度。”

《我，雪豹……》是吉狄马加的标志性作品。诗歌描绘了一头雪豹被野蛮地杀戮，但并未止步于表达悲伤与愤怒，而是将一个一般性的伦理命题，升华到了一个更为复杂和复合性的命题，提高到了生命哲学的高度。这只与人类灵魂结合的雪豹对自身、对雪域高原、对人类的前景进行了预言性的描述。这样的描述本质上是神性的，但同时也具有现实意味。《鹿回头》以一个美丽动人的故事和由此演绎的景观为依托，揭露了战争屠杀和血腥恐怖活动，表达人类对和平与安乐的诉求。《土墙》写的是以色列的西墙，但是诗歌的世界性和空间性悄然呈现出来——表面上是“土墙”，而“我”常常将其幻想成为“彝人的土墙”，由此而产生的甜蜜而伤感的情绪是多重而复杂的，有传统消逝的痛心，也有关于和平、关于隔阂、关于种族的思考，显示出世界诗人的胸怀。

吉狄马加的新作《大河》是一首以黄河为主题、“献给黄河”的长诗。全诗共三百多行，语言精粹大气，风格壮阔高昂。在青藏高原工作生活多年的吉狄马加，对黄河有着格外的亲切情感。吉狄马加在书写中对黄河进行了一种哲学的、形而上的气质挖掘，整首诗充满了神秘神圣的氛围，让人不自觉地对这条大河有了崇敬和激赏的感觉。

Jidi Majia, male, member of China’s Yi ethnic group. Born in Liangshan, Sichuan province in June 1961, he graduated from the Southwest University for Nationalities in 1982 with a degree in Chinese. Currently the vice-president of the Chinese Writers Association, a secretary in the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China, and a representative for the 13th National People’s Congress. Jidi Majia is well-known as a Chinese minority  poet, as a representative contemporary Chinese poet, and also as a poet with broad international influence. His poetry collection Song of Love won the Third China National Poetry Prize. In 1994, he received the Zhuang Chongwen Literary Prize; he was awarded the Sholokhov Memorial Medal for Literature in 2006; in 2014, he received the South African Mkiva Humanitarian Award; in 2017, he was the recipient of Poland’s 2017 Ianicius Prize; and that year he also received the Silver Willow Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cambridge Xu Zhimo Poetry and Art Festival. In 2007 he founded the International Qinghai Lake Poetry Festival and assumed the role of president of the festival’s organizing committee, as well as the president of the review committee of the “Golden Tibetan Antelope” Poetry Prize. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages and published in more than fifty countries and regions.

Jidi Majia’s style of poetry is imposing and majestic. The famed Syrian poet Adunis remarked, “Through his poetry, Jidi Majia seems to attempt to understand all of people’s mysteries and miseries, as well as the individual’s relationships with others and with the universe.” The well-known writer Alai stated, “Jidi Majia’s poems have Yi culture at their roots, and they have also absorbed China’s classical Chinese language as well as the  excellent nourishment of modern Western poetry. There is a strong worldly nature to his poetry, which comes from its ample understanding of its own ethnic culture. From this starting point, his poetry goes forth to build a worldly outlook and new poetic heights.

I, Snow Leopard… is one of Jidi Majia’s landmark works. The poem depicts the barbarous murder of a snow leopard, but rather than express sorrow and anger, the writer takes a general topic of ethics and elevates it to an even more complex and compound topic, actually raising it to the heights of the philosophy of life. This snow leopard, bestowed with a human soul, gives out a prophetic description of itself, of the snowy plains, and of humanity’s future. This kind of description is otherworldly in and of itself, but it also has overtones of realism.The Deer Turns Around (Lu Hui Tou) takes a beautiful, moving story and—using the landscape that it develops—reveals the massacre of war and bloody, terrifying acts, expressing humanity’s demand for peace and happiness.

Wall of Earth (Tu Qiang) is about Israel’s Western Wall, but the worldly and spacious nature of the poem quietly emerges as one reads on. On the surface, the titular object is simply a wall made of earth, but the poem’s narrator frequently imagines it to be “the earth wall of the Yi people.” The sweet but sorrowful emotions that arise within the poem are complex and multilayered. The pain of dying tradition, as well as peace, misunderstandings, and thoughts on race and ethnicity, all emerge in the worldly poet’s mind.

Jidi Majia’s new work, Great River (Da He), is a long poem “dedicated to the Yellow River.” Taking the Yellow River as its theme, the entire poem contains more than three hundred lines. It is written with succinct language and a vast, majestic style. Jidi Majia worked on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau for many years, during which time he developed an extraordinary connection with the Yellow River. In this poem, Jidi Majia carries out a philosophical and metaphysical excavation of the river’s qualities. The entire piece is filled with a mysterious, holy aura, which gives the reader an involuntary sense of respect and appreciation for this great body of water.