Wild Geese Returning

Chinese Reversible Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, Anthologies
Cover of the book Wild Geese Returning by Michele Metail, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michele Metail ISBN: 9789629968168
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: March 28, 2017
Imprint: New York Review Books Language: English
Author: Michele Metail
ISBN: 9789629968168
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: March 28, 2017
Imprint: New York Review Books
Language: English

A breathtaking introduction to Chinese multidirectional poems, told through the story of Su Hui, the greatest writer of these poems who embroidered a silk with 840 characters--equaling as many as 12,000 multidirectional poems--for her distant husband.

For nearly two thousand years, the condensed language of classical Chinese has offered the possibility of writing poems that may be read both forward and backward, producing entirely different creations. The genre was known as the “flight of wild geese,” and the poems were often symbolically or literally sent to a distant lover, in the hope that he or she, like the migrating birds, would return.
Its greatest practitioner, and the focus of this critical anthology, is Su Hui, a woman who, in the fourth century, embroidered a silk for her distant husband consisting of a grid of 840 characters. No one has ever fully explored all of its possibilities, but it is estimated that the poem—and the poems within the poem—may be read as many as twelve thousand ways. Su Hui herself said, “As it lingers aimlessly, twisting and turning, it takes on a pattern of its own. No one but my beloved can be sure of comprehending it.”

With examples ranging from the third to the nineteenth centuries, Michèle Métail brings the scholarship of a Sinologist and the playfulness of an avant-gardist to this unique collection of perhaps the most ancient of experimental poems.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A breathtaking introduction to Chinese multidirectional poems, told through the story of Su Hui, the greatest writer of these poems who embroidered a silk with 840 characters--equaling as many as 12,000 multidirectional poems--for her distant husband.

For nearly two thousand years, the condensed language of classical Chinese has offered the possibility of writing poems that may be read both forward and backward, producing entirely different creations. The genre was known as the “flight of wild geese,” and the poems were often symbolically or literally sent to a distant lover, in the hope that he or she, like the migrating birds, would return.
Its greatest practitioner, and the focus of this critical anthology, is Su Hui, a woman who, in the fourth century, embroidered a silk for her distant husband consisting of a grid of 840 characters. No one has ever fully explored all of its possibilities, but it is estimated that the poem—and the poems within the poem—may be read as many as twelve thousand ways. Su Hui herself said, “As it lingers aimlessly, twisting and turning, it takes on a pattern of its own. No one but my beloved can be sure of comprehending it.”

With examples ranging from the third to the nineteenth centuries, Michèle Métail brings the scholarship of a Sinologist and the playfulness of an avant-gardist to this unique collection of perhaps the most ancient of experimental poems.

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book The Crisis of the European Mind by Michele Metail
Cover of the book The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter by Michele Metail
Cover of the book The Unpossessed by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Memoirs of an Anti-Semite by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Peplum by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Hav by Michele Metail
Cover of the book School for Love by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Vasko Popa by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Back by Michele Metail
Cover of the book More Was Lost by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Waiting for the Barbarians by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Ride a Cockhorse by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Donkey-donkey by Michele Metail
Cover of the book The Secret Commonwealth by Michele Metail
Cover of the book Masscult and Midcult by Michele Metail
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy