{"id":2242,"date":"2013-10-14T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T01:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2242"},"modified":"2013-10-03T11:45:07","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T03:45:07","slug":"2242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2242","title":{"rendered":"Jade Mirror: Women Poets of China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/a>Jade Mirror: Women Poets of China<\/em>, edited by Michael Farman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The following is from a write-up by George Ovitt<\/a>:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
“Written in a Pavilion Lost in the Mists”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
spring flowers, fall’s<\/div>\n
full moon:<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the stuff of poems.<\/div>\n
cloudless sun. clear<\/div>\n
nights. here: mountain<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 spirits, loosed.<\/div>\n
no reason I raised<\/div>\n
the pearl-sewn blinds.<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 won’t lower them.<\/div>\n
my couch is moved for good now.<\/div>\n
I’ll turn toward these hills<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and sleep.<\/div>\n
(Yu Xuanji trans. by Geoffrey Waters)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

What I have noticed is that aspiring poets can reproduce the simple description in this form– reminiscent of e.e. cummings–but when it comes to the real point<\/i> of the poem, where the observing eye moves inward, when the poetic sensibility must construct meaning from the passive moment of watching flowers and moon and mountain–this is where the trouble begins.\u00a0 Most pastiches of this sort of transparent poetry miss the point right at the line “I’ll turn toward these hills\/and sleep.<\/i>” What? Isn’t the romantic (and it is the easiest thing in the world to think of Chinese and Japanese “nature” poets as “romantics”–maybe not as loquacious as Wordsworth, but with the identical set of feelings) supposed to regard <\/i>the hills?\u00a0 Isn’t it rather anti-climactic to fall asleep?\u00a0 And that’s the way these deceptive poems often work: they take us to the edge of a simple truth and turn it against us–this is the art of disappointment, or of beauty as emptiness rather than fulfillment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image above for ordering information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jade Mirror: Women Poets of China, edited by Michael Farman. The following is from a write-up by George Ovitt: “Written in a Pavilion Lost in the Mists” spring flowers, fall’s full moon: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the stuff of poems. cloudless sun. clear … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[1234,1235,1237,1189,1233,1236],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8srwF-2242","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2151,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2151","url_meta":{"origin":2242,"position":0},"title":"Fiona Sze-Lorrain featured in China Daily","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Solving a riddle with a harp and the magic of words\" As a student at Columbia University, she dabbled in theater, writing and East Asian studies, and came to realize that there was more to be understood in the space between words and cultures, she said. 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