Article
Yang Lian's Yi Now Available in English
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January 18, 2006
A star big enough to carve a small lotus
Before flames find the form of the porcelain
Darkness flows into the jar
As if splashing about in the starry firmament
Not yet designated night
As if time is not time
Just empty pouring
Filling emptiness Fragile body.
(Fire 1: Stars and Porcelain)
Yang Lian is a challenging poet, and there is no mistaking his artistic integrity.
For more details, visit the website of Green Integer.
Yang Lian's Yi, a vast poem in four sections reworking the esoteric Book of Changes, is now available in an attractive bilingual edition published by Green Integer as part of the Marjorie G. Perloff Series of International Poetry.
Yang, who "stands with Bei Dao and others as one of the major living Chinese exiled poets", first published Yi in 1994. The translator, Mabel Lee, best known for her rendition into English of Gao Xingjian's Nobel Prize-winning Soul Mountain, has been working on Yang Lian's poetry for many years and her commitment to this writing is evident in this work:A star big enough to carve a small lotus
Before flames find the form of the porcelain
Darkness flows into the jar
As if splashing about in the starry firmament
Not yet designated night
As if time is not time
Just empty pouring
Filling emptiness Fragile body.
(Fire 1: Stars and Porcelain)
Yang Lian is a challenging poet, and there is no mistaking his artistic integrity.
For more details, visit the website of Green Integer.
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