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Overview
Influenced by both the “gray, sinister sea” near the village where Yi Lu grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and the beauty of the sea in the books she read as a child, Sea Summit is a collection of paradox and questioning. The sea is an impossible force to the poet: it is both a majestic presence that predates man, and something to carry with us wherever we go, to be put “by an ancient rattan chair,” so we can watch “its waves toss” from above. Exploring the current ecological crisis and our complicated relationship to the wildness around us, Yi Lu finds something more complex than a traditional nature poet might in the mysterious connection between herself and the forces of nature represented by the boundless ocean.
Translated brilliantly by the acclaimed poet Fiona Sze-Lorrain, this collection of poems introduces an important contemporary Chinese poet to English-language readers.
Praise for Sea Summit
“Yi Lu is a theatre scenographer, and her poems brim with the imagistic tendencies we might expect from a visual artist. More specifically, her poetic style fits that of a theatrical set designer. Within the poetry of Sea Summit, the images are like set pieces. They play supporting roles as they help to tell the speaker’s stories. . . . Sensitive and poignant poetry.” —The Literary Review
“A compilation of over twenty years of work. . . . Yi’s poetry shows the world as staggeringly simultaneous, from a crowded conference room in the middle of the city to the titular wave rising under the incredible volume of the ocean. . . . This collection is a great introduction to Yi Lu, already one of the most widely read poets in China.” —The Los Angeles Review
“With this selection of more than 80 of her ecologically conscious lyric poems, Yi receives a generous introduction to English readers. The pastoral is Yi’s mode of choice, and the poems here take as their subject matter the natural world as well as the human experience of it. . . . Sze-Lorrain’s steadfast translations, presented en-face, make accessible one of China’s most famous woman poets.” —Publishers Weekly
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781571319364 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Milkweed Editions |
| Publication date: | 10/05/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Sales rank: | 487,881 |
| File size: | 6 MB |
About the Author
Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in English, French, and Chinese. Her new poetry collection, The Ruined Elegance (2016), is published by Princeton University Press in the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. The author of two previous titles, My Funeral Gondola (2013) and Water the Moon (2010), as well as several translations of contemporary Chinese, French, and American poets, she is a zheng harpist and an editor at Vif Éditions. She lives in Paris, France.
Melissa Kwasny is the author of five books of poems, including, most recently, Pictograph (2015), The Nine Senses (2011), and Reading Novalis in Montana (2009), all from Milkweed Editions. Her book of essays, Earth Recitals: Essays on Image and Vision, was published by Lynx House Press in 2013. She lives in the Elkhorn Mountains of western Montana.
Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Introduction 5
I
Early Spring 17
March Pasture 19
A Pregnant Woman Walks in the Fields 21
Bird Call 23
Yell 25
Father in a Basket 27
A Treeful of Bird Calls 29
Flower 31
Goats on a Desert Island 33
On My Way to Grandma When I Was Little 35
Sweet Olive Scent 37
Spring Camellias 39
Valley's Green 41
An Expanse of Azure 43
In the Canyon 45
Fading Things 47
Behind the Isle 49
II
Sea Summit 53
Sea First Man Next 55
Drift Bottle 57
Many Many Mothers 59
My Own Sea 61
Using Two Seas 65
A Dog on the Shore 67
No Prop Can Shield You 69
Look at the Sunset 71
Red Earth 73
In That Wild Mountain 75
Heavy Rain 77
Names on the Tombstone 79
This Wind Comes Alone 81
A Patch of Sunlight 83
A Common Life 85
By the Maple Woods 87
III
Two Porcelain Vases 91
An Old Tree 93
In Those Days Father Repaired the Clock 95
Sun on the First Day of the New Century 97
Is There Such an Eagle 101
Spring Arrives 105
A Bird 107
A Bouquet of Cauliflower 109
Marigold 111
Carnation 113
The Pregnant Woman 115
O Water… 117
Bird Call on a Spring Day 121
Joy 123
They Still Have Not Emerged 125
Voice of Flowing Water 127
In the Open Field 129
IV
Eternal 133
They Say 135
Wind Comes Wind Goes 137
A Flight of Floating Stairs 141
Rain Pours Harder 143
Yesterday's Rain Joins Today's Rain
In the Form of a Scissor Cut 147
The Aroma We Smell 149
Birds Have Already Flown Away 151
Recalling Your Birth 153
Safety Zone 155
Creek of Nine Tunes 157
Golden Butterfly 159
In an Instant 161
Fairy Tale 163
Solitude 165
Because of Awakening 167
V
Sand Sculpture 171
Volcanic Stone 173
The Eagle's Shadow Darkens the Storm 175
Always a Moon Locked Inside 177
Lake, Again 179
Broken Water 181
Pit of the Stomach 183
The Power of a Chest Cavity Is Too Weak 185
The World's Heart Always Aches Faintly 189
Many Stars Emerge 191
One Day It Will Stop Completely 193
That Bouquet of White Flowers 195
Space of Drama 197
Solo Dance 199
Only the Sun Can Do What the Sun Does 203
With Mount Liangye Falls 205
Two White Houses 209
May You See the Splendor of Stars in This World 211