Mirror
Poems by Zhang Zao
Published on 24. August 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
260 pages
978-1-938890-15-4 (ISBN)
Description
This posthumous collection is a detailed, retrospective look at one of the more brilliant poetic minds of the twenty-first century, and includes an introduction by Bai Hua and afterword by Bei Dao. A dark humor vivifies Zhang Zao's later work as he eroticizes the harrowing: doubt, finality, and then nothingness. The choice of these poems is retrospective: "Mirror," one of his earliest and best known works starts the collection, while "Lantern Town" was written less than two months before his death.
Elegy
a letter opens and someone says
it's getting cold
another letter opens
it is empty, empty
yet heavier than the world
a letter opens
someone says he is singing from a mountain height
someone says no, even if the potato was dead
the inertia alive in it
would still grow tiny hands
another letter opens
you sleep like a tangerine
but after peeling off your nudity someone says
he has touched another you
another letter opens
they are all laughing
everything around explodes into laughter
a letter opens
clouds and water run wild outside
a letter opens
I am chewing a certain darkness
another letter opens
high moon in the sky
another letter opens and shouts
death is something real
Translator Fiona Sze-Lorrain co-edited the Manoa anthologies, Sky Lanterns (2012) and On Freedom: Spirit, Art, and State (2013), and is the translator of three previous Jintian titles, including Lan Lan's Canyon in the Body and Wind Says by Bai Hua.
Elegy
a letter opens and someone says
it's getting cold
another letter opens
it is empty, empty
yet heavier than the world
a letter opens
someone says he is singing from a mountain height
someone says no, even if the potato was dead
the inertia alive in it
would still grow tiny hands
another letter opens
you sleep like a tangerine
but after peeling off your nudity someone says
he has touched another you
another letter opens
they are all laughing
everything around explodes into laughter
a letter opens
clouds and water run wild outside
a letter opens
I am chewing a certain darkness
another letter opens
high moon in the sky
another letter opens and shouts
death is something real
Translator Fiona Sze-Lorrain co-edited the Manoa anthologies, Sky Lanterns (2012) and On Freedom: Spirit, Art, and State (2013), and is the translator of three previous Jintian titles, including Lan Lan's Canyon in the Body and Wind Says by Bai Hua.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Massachusetts
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-938890-15-4 (9781938890154)
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
Zhang Zao: Began writing in the early 1980s, inspired by the so-called ?obscure" ("Misty") poets who emerged after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, but determined to go beyond these writers in terms of his experimentation with language. He eventually developed a style that blended Eastern and Western influences. He moved to German in 1986 where he worked as a recognized literary critic, translator and scholar of German literature and philosophy. He died in 2010 at the age of 48.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain: Writes and translates in French, English, and Chinese. Her recent work includes "My Funeral Gondola" (published as a Manoa Books title from El Leon Literary Arts in 2013), and "Water the Moon" (Marick Press, 2010). Co-director of Vif editions and one of the editors at Cerise Press, she is also a zheng concertist. Her translation of "I Could Almost See the Clouds of Dust," by Yu Xiang (Zephyr 2013) was long-listed for the 2013 PEN Poetry in Translation Award. She has translated two other Zephyr titles: "Canyon in the Body," by Lan Lan, and "Wind Says," by Bai Hua.
Bei Dao: Bei Dao is considered one of China's most important writers. He is the most notable member of the "Misty Poets" and co-founded and co-edited "Jintian" ("Today") magazine. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Bai Hua: The central figure of the post-"Misty" poets, Bai Hua is one of the most influential of contemporary Chinese poets. His book "Wind Says," translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, was published by Zephyr in 2012.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain: Writes and translates in French, English, and Chinese. Her recent work includes "My Funeral Gondola" (published as a Manoa Books title from El Leon Literary Arts in 2013), and "Water the Moon" (Marick Press, 2010). Co-director of Vif editions and one of the editors at Cerise Press, she is also a zheng concertist. Her translation of "I Could Almost See the Clouds of Dust," by Yu Xiang (Zephyr 2013) was long-listed for the 2013 PEN Poetry in Translation Award. She has translated two other Zephyr titles: "Canyon in the Body," by Lan Lan, and "Wind Says," by Bai Hua.
Bei Dao: Bei Dao is considered one of China's most important writers. He is the most notable member of the "Misty Poets" and co-founded and co-edited "Jintian" ("Today") magazine. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Bai Hua: The central figure of the post-"Misty" poets, Bai Hua is one of the most influential of contemporary Chinese poets. His book "Wind Says," translated by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, was published by Zephyr in 2012.
Content
Introduction: After the Epic Voice by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
Preface
Poetics of a Mirror Bai Hua
Mirror
Who Art Thou*
Autumn Drama*
Late Autumn Story
The Blissful Corduroy Dance*
The Prince of Chu Dreamed of Rain
Early Spring, February
Metaphor of Death
Memories of Mount Lu
Cloud Sky
Fly*
Love and Death of a German Spy in the England of a Sweet Nightingale*
[a lyric sequence]
1. [No butter. War chews on moldy crusts]
2. [Sweet nightingale. Keats' nightingale withdraws into dawn]
3. [I ask, Who are you.... That is, how did you]
4. [He sings, the singing drunkard walks past]
5. [Guard mounting on Wednesdays. Under the window the
drunkard walks past]
6. [Sweet nightingale. We close our eyes and wait]
Schermanski the German Soldier's Death Sentence
Chairs Sit into Winter...
Kafka to Felice* [a sequence of sonnets]
1. [My name is Kafka, if you recall]
2. [Snowy night of Prague, from scissoring alleys]
3. [Yet fatal is the breakthrough. Highest]
4
4. [O night, you are always less than night]
5. [When can men see themselves]
6. [Reading is murder; I dislike]
7. [A sudden stroll: blood that spurs me on]
8. [Autumn soon, and soon I will]
9. [Men gaze at it for long, so what]
Umbrella
Midnight Bread
Elegy
Talisman*
The Lark This Year
Grandfather*
At Thirty*
Dialogue with Tsvetaeva [a sequence of sonnets]
1. [My black eyes smile at you with affection]
2. [Every day I dream of Eternal Laments. Clouds drifting]
3. [... as usual, I bury my head in the empty cup]
4. [Our eyelashes - why do they leap in foreign land]
5. [Sunlight is a wolf from time to time, sauntering]
6. [Cherries, a scarlet red, as if waiting for someone to return]
7. [Back in Moscow, you suffer a cold rebuff]
8. [Dawn in the east. A scene filled with static comes to an end]
9. [People can't explain everything around them]
10. [Taking off my glasses, I wish to translate for the deaf and the
mute]
11. [... yes, Your Honor, the moon surges]
12. [Will there really be a September goodbye]
Nightview, New York
Chef
Homeland*
A Key Dedicated to C. R.
Grandmother
In the Forest
West Lake Dream
Clouds* [a lyric sequence]
1. [When I, with a skull heaped with sky-blue mushrooms]
5
2. [A leaf. This universe stretches its tongue into]
3. [Where are we? Beyond miles]
4. [You are turning two today; mermaids leap from out of nowhere]
5. [... mirages fade. Desktop, the ruins of elves]
6. [Over the horizon, nurses are bustling]
7. [You pick up a cub, when the tiger]
8. [You are turning two today ; when you awake]
Long, Long Ago
Letters in Four Seasons
Look, Brother, These Empty Bottles...
Verge
Song of Earth*
Off to Jiangnan*
World
Song of a Wall Driller and the Ultimate Ear*
Drunken Song
Adieu Schloss Solitude
Father
Sitting Listlessly*
A Wildly Noble Glass of Water*
High Window
On the Pacific Ocean, A Small Island Country
Lord Xiang*
The Invisible Opium War*
Lantern Town
Afterword by Bei Dao
Notes
Bibliography
Preface
Poetics of a Mirror Bai Hua
Mirror
Who Art Thou*
Autumn Drama*
Late Autumn Story
The Blissful Corduroy Dance*
The Prince of Chu Dreamed of Rain
Early Spring, February
Metaphor of Death
Memories of Mount Lu
Cloud Sky
Fly*
Love and Death of a German Spy in the England of a Sweet Nightingale*
[a lyric sequence]
1. [No butter. War chews on moldy crusts]
2. [Sweet nightingale. Keats' nightingale withdraws into dawn]
3. [I ask, Who are you.... That is, how did you]
4. [He sings, the singing drunkard walks past]
5. [Guard mounting on Wednesdays. Under the window the
drunkard walks past]
6. [Sweet nightingale. We close our eyes and wait]
Schermanski the German Soldier's Death Sentence
Chairs Sit into Winter...
Kafka to Felice* [a sequence of sonnets]
1. [My name is Kafka, if you recall]
2. [Snowy night of Prague, from scissoring alleys]
3. [Yet fatal is the breakthrough. Highest]
4
4. [O night, you are always less than night]
5. [When can men see themselves]
6. [Reading is murder; I dislike]
7. [A sudden stroll: blood that spurs me on]
8. [Autumn soon, and soon I will]
9. [Men gaze at it for long, so what]
Umbrella
Midnight Bread
Elegy
Talisman*
The Lark This Year
Grandfather*
At Thirty*
Dialogue with Tsvetaeva [a sequence of sonnets]
1. [My black eyes smile at you with affection]
2. [Every day I dream of Eternal Laments. Clouds drifting]
3. [... as usual, I bury my head in the empty cup]
4. [Our eyelashes - why do they leap in foreign land]
5. [Sunlight is a wolf from time to time, sauntering]
6. [Cherries, a scarlet red, as if waiting for someone to return]
7. [Back in Moscow, you suffer a cold rebuff]
8. [Dawn in the east. A scene filled with static comes to an end]
9. [People can't explain everything around them]
10. [Taking off my glasses, I wish to translate for the deaf and the
mute]
11. [... yes, Your Honor, the moon surges]
12. [Will there really be a September goodbye]
Nightview, New York
Chef
Homeland*
A Key Dedicated to C. R.
Grandmother
In the Forest
West Lake Dream
Clouds* [a lyric sequence]
1. [When I, with a skull heaped with sky-blue mushrooms]
5
2. [A leaf. This universe stretches its tongue into]
3. [Where are we? Beyond miles]
4. [You are turning two today; mermaids leap from out of nowhere]
5. [... mirages fade. Desktop, the ruins of elves]
6. [Over the horizon, nurses are bustling]
7. [You pick up a cub, when the tiger]
8. [You are turning two today ; when you awake]
Long, Long Ago
Letters in Four Seasons
Look, Brother, These Empty Bottles...
Verge
Song of Earth*
Off to Jiangnan*
World
Song of a Wall Driller and the Ultimate Ear*
Drunken Song
Adieu Schloss Solitude
Father
Sitting Listlessly*
A Wildly Noble Glass of Water*
High Window
On the Pacific Ocean, A Small Island Country
Lord Xiang*
The Invisible Opium War*
Lantern Town
Afterword by Bei Dao
Notes
Bibliography