A Tower Built Downwards
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Published on 23. March 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-78037-643-1 (ISBN)
Description
Before and since his enforced exile from 1989, Yang Lian has been one of the most innovative and influential poets from China. Widely hailed in America and Europe as a highly individual voice in world literature, he has been translated into many languages. A Tower Built Downwards is the latest instalment of his poetry, written between 2019 and 2022. The different sections - short poems, sequences, and one long poem - form a single comprehensive statement of Yang's recent explorations. It is rooted in his living experience of the historical retrogression of Hong Kong, the disaster of Covid-19, the global spiritual crisis, as well as his personal sadness at events such as his father's death.
The creativity of the writing faces - is even excited by - the depth of the challenges of reality. The long title-poem in seven parts is a spiritual journey travelling back in time, completed back in the now, building up into 'a reincarnation within one', as endless time is transformed into multilayered poetical space, in Ai Weiwei's words: 'This intellectual tower... [turns] the unsurpassable puzzles intermingled with life and death into an in-depth exploration of human emotion.'
Ai Weiwei's innovative cover image featuring CCTV cameras and chains made of gold stretches around the whole book, across French flaps and then continues inside the front and back covers of the book, becoming an extraordinary metaphor for the book's content.
The creativity of the writing faces - is even excited by - the depth of the challenges of reality. The long title-poem in seven parts is a spiritual journey travelling back in time, completed back in the now, building up into 'a reincarnation within one', as endless time is transformed into multilayered poetical space, in Ai Weiwei's words: 'This intellectual tower... [turns] the unsurpassable puzzles intermingled with life and death into an in-depth exploration of human emotion.'
Ai Weiwei's innovative cover image featuring CCTV cameras and chains made of gold stretches around the whole book, across French flaps and then continues inside the front and back covers of the book, becoming an extraordinary metaphor for the book's content.
Reviews / Votes
Those lonely Tang dynasty poets may be Yang's original blues brothers, but he's as much a modernist and symbolist in the vein of Mallarme or Rimbaud [...] Yang Lian's work is rooted not in geography but in his own imagination [...] to exist in Yang's lines can be a gorgeous but frustrating adventure. -- Tim Kindseth * Time Magazine * Repressive regimes tend to have little problem acknowledging poets' power to shape our opinions and our world. Some of those they exile settle in Britain. Yang Lian, a leading member of China's Tiananmen generation, has just published his autobiographical masterpiece Narrative Poem in translation... A kind of wild lyricism marks the work... a sense of the explosive urgency of writing itself. -- Fiona Sampson * The i Paper * Yang Lian is one of the most ambitious poets writing in Chinese today - indeed, one of the most ambitious poets writing in any language... Narrative Poem represents a stunning achievement of both poet and translator, bringing the two together almost as one. -- Lucas Klein * Translation and Literature *More details
Edition
Paperback original
Language
English
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
sewn/stitched
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 9 mm
Weight
254 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78037-643-1 (9781780376431)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Yang Lian was one of the original Misty Poets who reacted against the strictures of the Cultural Revolution. Born in Switzerland, the son of a diplomat, he grew up in Beijing and began writing when he was sent to the countryside in the 1970s. On his return he joined the influential literary magazine Jintian (Today). His work was criticised in China in 1983 and formally banned in 1989 when he organised memorial services for the dead of Tiananmen while in New Zealand. He was a Chinese poet in exile from 1989 to 1995, finally settling in London in 1997, also living for some periods in Berlin. Translations of his poetry include five collections with Bloodaxe, Where the Sea Stands Still (1999), Concentric Circles (2005), Lee Valley Poems (2009), Narrative Poem (2017) and A Tower Built Downwards (2023), as well as his long poem Yi (Green Integer, USA, 2002), Anniversary Snow (Shearsman, 2019), and Riding Pisces: Poems from Five Collections (Shearsman, 2008), a compilation of earlier work. He is co-editor with W.N. Herbert of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry (Bloodaxe Books, 2012), and was awarded the International Nonino Prize in 2012. Both Where the Sea Stands Still and Narrative Poem are Poetry Book Society Recommended Translations.
Content
9 Acknowledgements
11 Introduction by Ai Weiwei
???? SHORT POEMS
?
17 Root
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19 To the Vanished Stranger Beside Us: Written for Wuhan
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20 Dead Sea
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22 Green Grass Offering
???2020
24 Fiction 2020
??2020
25 Nightmares 2020
????? ??--??
28 Plague Laboratory ?1-3?
????"??"??
31 An Urn Called 'Hope'
??????
32 Orwellian New Year
??????
34 Ovid's Spring Water
????
35 Falling: A Portrait
2019?12?19?: ????
37 19th December 2019: A Response Poem of the Winter Solstice
???????????
39 Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof Main Gate
??????
41 Railway Tracks in the Woods
?????????
43 Phantom Foxes at a Concert
?????
45 Feather - Stone
?????
46 Stone - Feather
"???????????"
47 'Jinsha, Please Listen to 20 Seconds of Rain'
???????????
49 Touching a Set of Western Zhou Dynasty Bells in Shanghai Museum
???????????
50 Listening to Pu Xuezhai Playing Three Plum Blossom Airs
??????
52 Xupu Beauty Nocturne
??????????
54 Monday, with West Lake for a Backdrop
???????
56 Messmaster 90 Song
????
58 Letter Home from at Sea
?????????????--??
60 Birthday Waltz in Virus Isolation (1-5)
?????
63 Birth of a Name
????????
65 Shantou University: A Sealed Letter Home
?????????
66 Magni?cent Nonblockable Poem
?? ???
68 Hear Tea (1)
?? ???
69 Hear Tea (2)
??
70 Lake Longing
???
72 A Thousand White Layers
???????
73 Imperial Garden. Zero and Night
??????
74 Imperial Garden. Peacock
??????
75 Imperial Garden. Oyster
??????
76 Imperial Garden. Bronze Boat
??????
77 Imperial Garden. Music of Ink
????????
78 Imperial Garden. Laide's Wind
??????
79 Imperial Garden. Jade Tablet
????????
80 Imperial Garden. Stone Age
???????
81 Imperial Garden. Final
????
82 Researching Evil
????
86 Anti-requiem
???? SEQUENCES
???????98??
91 Reincarnation - Stupa (98 Lines)
??????
95 Poems on Turning Back History
???????????????????????
98 Han (Retreater) Yu's Hungry Ghost Day
Or, Time That Collapses onto Our Heads from All Sides
?????????????
102 Hungry Ghost Day at South Gate
Or, A Song of the Back View of Shanghai
??
107 Crane Land
???????????
111 Master, I'm a Drop of Water by Your Side
???? LONG POEMS
????????
119 A Tower Built Downwards
??
137 Labyrinth
????????????
151 Orwell's New Year - A Verse Drama
11 Introduction by Ai Weiwei
???? SHORT POEMS
?
17 Root
?????????--???
19 To the Vanished Stranger Beside Us: Written for Wuhan
??
20 Dead Sea
???
22 Green Grass Offering
???2020
24 Fiction 2020
??2020
25 Nightmares 2020
????? ??--??
28 Plague Laboratory ?1-3?
????"??"??
31 An Urn Called 'Hope'
??????
32 Orwellian New Year
??????
34 Ovid's Spring Water
????
35 Falling: A Portrait
2019?12?19?: ????
37 19th December 2019: A Response Poem of the Winter Solstice
???????????
39 Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof Main Gate
??????
41 Railway Tracks in the Woods
?????????
43 Phantom Foxes at a Concert
?????
45 Feather - Stone
?????
46 Stone - Feather
"???????????"
47 'Jinsha, Please Listen to 20 Seconds of Rain'
???????????
49 Touching a Set of Western Zhou Dynasty Bells in Shanghai Museum
???????????
50 Listening to Pu Xuezhai Playing Three Plum Blossom Airs
??????
52 Xupu Beauty Nocturne
??????????
54 Monday, with West Lake for a Backdrop
???????
56 Messmaster 90 Song
????
58 Letter Home from at Sea
?????????????--??
60 Birthday Waltz in Virus Isolation (1-5)
?????
63 Birth of a Name
????????
65 Shantou University: A Sealed Letter Home
?????????
66 Magni?cent Nonblockable Poem
?? ???
68 Hear Tea (1)
?? ???
69 Hear Tea (2)
??
70 Lake Longing
???
72 A Thousand White Layers
???????
73 Imperial Garden. Zero and Night
??????
74 Imperial Garden. Peacock
??????
75 Imperial Garden. Oyster
??????
76 Imperial Garden. Bronze Boat
??????
77 Imperial Garden. Music of Ink
????????
78 Imperial Garden. Laide's Wind
??????
79 Imperial Garden. Jade Tablet
????????
80 Imperial Garden. Stone Age
???????
81 Imperial Garden. Final
????
82 Researching Evil
????
86 Anti-requiem
???? SEQUENCES
???????98??
91 Reincarnation - Stupa (98 Lines)
??????
95 Poems on Turning Back History
???????????????????????
98 Han (Retreater) Yu's Hungry Ghost Day
Or, Time That Collapses onto Our Heads from All Sides
?????????????
102 Hungry Ghost Day at South Gate
Or, A Song of the Back View of Shanghai
??
107 Crane Land
???????????
111 Master, I'm a Drop of Water by Your Side
???? LONG POEMS
????????
119 A Tower Built Downwards
??
137 Labyrinth
????????????
151 Orwell's New Year - A Verse Drama