Zhang Zao's MIRROR

An attractive quality of these poems is the outsider's constant searching for self and form. "Mirror" is not only the title of one of Zhang Zao's most famous poems but also a recurring trope in his oeuvre. Thoroughly grounded in both Chinese and European literature, he seeks "a new tension and melting point," as Bei Dao wrote in his personal recollection of the author, included in this book. How successful are his sonnet sequences, "Kafka to Felice" and "Dialogue with Tsvetaeva"? The Chinese originals strike as too full of words and ideas, and so lack the pressure cooker of the sonnet form. The free-verse experiments are more interesting, often ranging and strange. One has the great title "Song a Wall Driller and the Ultimate Ear," but the poem, in fact, pages 179 to 186, are missing from my edition. 

The poem I like best is called "Fly." It has something of John Donne's playful eroticism, but also the concision I associate with Chinese verse.

Fly

The more I see you the more human you seem
Five delicate senses, motionless
I want to penetrate your rugged mind
vital organs intact, in your blood
I spin with the whole body, expanding moonlight
with subtle courage

I pace around you in circle
O fly, I long for you

Your universe is mine
Your years make me forget flowers and leaces
So I move into your life and habits
merge with you, singing, dancing
listening to lovers sigh or sob in dreams

Look, no, let me look, dusk is here
It catches fire
How the smell of disaster reeks
Let's not join that chaotic word

O fly, a small wound
a small casual death
like another taste, another delicacy
wasting on your tongue

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