Floral Mutter (Jintian Series) - Softcover

Shi, Ya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938890892 ISBN 13: 9781938890895

Publisher: Zephyr Press, 2020

Synopsis

Ya Shi, an “outsider” poet, who teaches math and lives 1,000 miles from the Beijing literary scene, is celebrated among lovers of Chinese poetry from the conservative to the avant-garde. This bilingual (Chinese/English) collection draws together jagged and intense short lyrics, wild nature sonnets, and genre-bending prose poetry from across his career. His work is rooted in the independent spirit, folk imagination and tough music of the people of Sichuan, and combines iconoclasm and heart to demonstrate what's possible in Chinese poetry today.

About this title

About the Authors

YA SHI, born in 1966, grew up during the Cultural Revolution and studied mathematics at Beijing University. He embarked on his poetry career in 1990, becoming the editor of an influential underground magazine, winning the prestigious Liu Li'an prize, and publishing several collections of poetry through official and unofficial channels. By remaining in Sichuan province most of his adult life, he has eschewed the Beijing literary scene, and works mainly in seclusion from a larger literary community, engaging with readers online and through the samizdat publications of south China. He has gained a significant following in China of people attracted to his imagination and daring writing. He teaches mathematics in a city near Chengdu.

NICK ADMUSSEN is an assistant professor of Chinese literature at Cornell University. His scholarly book, "Recite and Refuse: Contemporary Chinese Prose Poetry," was published by Hawaii University Press in 2017. He is an essayist, poet, and translator, and his writings have appeared in numerous publications, including Privacy Policy, Boston Review, Queen Mab's Teahouse and elsewhere. His translations of poems by 2010 Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo appeared in the anthology, "No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems by Liu Xiaobo (Harvard University Press, 2012). He received a PEN Heim/Translation Grant for his translations of the poetry of Ya Shi.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Cryptic Poem

The bang bang of the fruits of literature and the bruising after,
you bang bang bang, I bruise for no reason at all.

A good guy, perched on the excavator, extends its metal arms
and the moment of exposure, of shame

condensed into a twinkling, lasts almost forever!
The summer dew writes back, says you’re still not cryptic enough.

Fury has many categories: flattering, hair pinned in tight bun,
stream of cat piss, unaggrieved, engrossed by the broken soul....

Does the glittering system abet weakness?
The fish bone chorus is violent, cracking the scenery but blocked in the throat.

What’s most serious doubtlessly happened before all the talking.
Swashbuckling heroism? Haven’t seen it in ages. On heaven and earth’s

temporary chopping block, you can put fir, white oak, red pine ….
Spirit and the flesh, sliced until they’re so lean!

Edition details

• Publisher: Zephyr Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1938890892
• ISBN 13: 9781938890895
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144