Grass Roots

by Xiang Yang

Overview

Xiang Yang's poetry stands as elegant testimony to the Taiwan experience. From start to finish, the collection is an articulation of Taiwan's identity imbued with salient cultural details.

The range and variety of his seven books of poetry include the development of a new formalism, narrative verse forms, and a strong engagement with Taiwanese dialect poetry. Since the publication of his cycle The Four Seasons (1986) he has written little, publishing but a single collection titled Chaos in 2005. In the intervening years, he has earned a PhD in journalism and moved from journalism to academia, devoting himself primarily to teaching. Apart from writing and his academic life, Xiang Yang is an established woodblock artist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938890079
Publisher:	Zephyr Press
Publication date:	12/16/2014
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Xiang Yang’s poetry stands as elegant testimony to the Taiwan experience. The author of seven volumes of poetry in his younger years, he has, since the publication of The Four Seasons (1986), published but a single collection titled Chaos, in 2005. In the intervening years, he earned a PhD in journalism and moved into academia. He is also an established woodblock artist.

John Balcom, PhD., is a translator of Chinese literature. Recent publications include Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry (contributor), Wintry Night by Li Qiao (co-translator), The City Trilogy by Chang His-kuo, Taiwan’s Indigenous Writers: An Anthology of Stories, Essays, and Poems, which has received the 2006 Northern California Book Award. He translated "Driftwood" and "Stone Cell," both by Lo Fu, which were published by Zephyr Press.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Acknowledgments xv

Ten-line Poems

Listening to the Rain 3

Thinking of a Friend 5

Train Station 7

Drinking Alone 9

Mountain Moon 11

The Fog Falls 13

Forest 15

Grass Roots 17

My Cares 19

Seed 21

Autumn Words 23

Stand 25

Uniform 27

Cold Current 29

Dialect Poems

Dad's Lunchbox 33

His Honor, Mr. Assemblyman, Is Not at Home 35

The Village Chief Wants to Build a Bridge 37

Nine to Five 41

A Miscellany

Passing through a Small Station at Night, Listening to the Rain 45

Time Follows 47

Chrysanthemum Sigh 49

The Soil and the Flower 51

Discovering 55

Chaos 59

Mountain Road 65

The Four Seasons

Beginning of Spring 71

The Rains 73

Waking of Insects 75

Vernal Equinox 77

Tomb Sweeping 79

Grain Rain 81

Beginning of Summer 85

Lesser Fullness of Grain 87

Grain in Ear 89

Summer Solstice 91

Lesser Heat 93

Great Heat 95

Beginning of Autumn 99

The Limit of Heat 101

White Dew 103

Autumn Equinox 105

Cold Dew 107

Hoar Frost 109

Beginning of Winter 113

Lesser Snow 115

Great Snow 117

Winter Solstice 119

Lesser Cold 121

Great Cold 12