LETTER FROM THE CHIEF VAGAS: Chief Vagabonds (Presidents): Anastasia Namsaraeva Tatyana Shmygol Chief Hobo (Vice President): Sara Jurdi Editors: Nicolas Delporte Teresa Ko Elisa Rossi Ivy Lin Kimberly Hitchcock Artists/Illustrators: Hao Li Anastasia Namsaraeva Layout: Tatyana Shmygol Anastasia Namsaraeva Nicolas Delporte Web Design: Teresa Ko Staff: Jenny Gilbert, Andrea Lan Kao For more information visit our website: vagabond.berkeley.edu or e-mail us at
vagabond@ocf.berkeley.edu
On the cover: portrait of John Fizer, painted by Hao Li, oil on canvas.
How the idea came about… It was one of Berkeley’s chilly and deserted evenings. We were sitting under the circus roof lights of café Strada, at one of those round tables with a piece of world map imprinted on its top, reading Baudelaire and sharing our thoughts about the meaning of his poems in Russian, English and French simultaneously. We broke out laughing at the unwanted attention that our trilingual conversation had stirred, and then it hit us—Berkeley— so many languages, so many cultures, so much life and no literary publication to embody and unite all of it! Berkeley is host to all kinds of musicians, artists, poets, clowns, jugglers, bucket drummers, dancers, fat squirrels, realists, pessimists, romantics, cynical raccoons—one cannot but feel as Alice in Wonderland, wandering through subconscious labyrinths of this magical life. When we take a closer look at one another we see more similarities than differences, and it’s by sharing those similarities while respecting and truly understanding and accepting the differences that we can create a more coherent world. Well, to quote John Lennon: “They may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…” Berkeley is a place for all vagabonds. ~ Anastasia and Tatyana
THANK YOU LETTER: First, we would like to thank our sponsors: the Berkeley Language Center, the ASUC, the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Department of French. We would like to thank Dr. Mark Kaiser, the Associate Director of the BLC, for not losing faith in our creation and taking us under the BLC Internet umbrella. We want to thank Dr. Sarah Roberts for all her inspiration, energy and guidance. These two amazing people were there for us during the roughest stages of this publication. The value of their contributions cannot be overestimated. Last, but not least, we want to thank our dedicated, hardworking and very loyal vagabonds Sara Jurdi, Theresa Ko, Nicolas Delporte, and Elisa Rossi, and everyone who belongs to our club and who in one way or another has worked on the journal either by editing works, by verifying the legitimacy of the translations or by attending the meetings and pitching in creative ideas and quotes. We hope that this publication will reward all the effort and investment everyone has contributed.
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VAGABOND