My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems

by Yi Lei, Tracy K. Smith (Translator)

Overview

One of China’s most significant contemporary poets, co-translated by former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith

*Shortlisted for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize*

Yi Lei published her poem “A Single Woman’s Bedroom” in 1987, when cohabitation before marriage was a punishable crime in China. She was met with major critical acclaim—and with outrage—for her frank embrace of women’s erotic desire and her unabashed critique of oppressive law. Over the span of her revolutionary career, Yi Lei became one of the most influential figures in contemporary Chinese poetry.

Passionate, rigorous, and inimitable, the poems in My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree celebrate the joys of the body, ponder the miracle of compassion, and proclaim an abiding reverence for the natural world. Presented in the original Chinese alongside English translations by Changtai Bi and Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith, this collection introduces American readers to a boundless spirit—one “composing an explosion.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644450406
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	11/03/2020
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,086,935
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 5.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Yi Lei (1951–2018) received the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Prize and published eight collections of poems, including A Single Woman’s Bedroom, The Love Poems of Yi Lei, and Women’s Age. Her work has been translated into five languages.

Table of Contents

Introduction Tracy K. Smith vii

Green Trees Greet the Rainstorm 3

Huangguoshu Waterfall 4

Between Strangers 5

Picnic 6

Furtive 7

Love's Dance 8

A Single Woman's Bedroom 20

Besieged 29

Black Hair 36

Red Wall 39

Nightmare 40

Flesh 41

As Clear and Thus as Virtuous as Glass 42

The Nude 43

Preserved Flower 44

With Whitman 45

Glorious Golden Birds Are Singing 46

Summer 47

Flame in the Cloud at Midnight 53

In the Distance 54

Talking to Myself 55

Nature Aria 56

Heavy Rain 58

Postperpetual 59

Mother- 60

Song for Heaven, Earth and Humankind 62

To the Viewer 63

Coronation of the Roses 65

Notes 67

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/16/2020

In the introduction to this stunning collection, Smith writes that Lei “astounded readers in China when, in 1987, she published a long poem entitled ‘A Single Woman’s Bedroom’... this at a time when cohabitation before marriage was still illegal in China.” But the poem in question isn’t simply about erotic desire—a topic Lei writes poignantly about—it’s on agency and freedom of the mind, as well: “I imagine a life in which I possess/ All that I lack. I fix what has failed./ What never was, I build and seize.” Lei’s poems fearlessly and thoughtfully explore sensuality, celebrating physical pleasure in spite of societal restrictions. Her poems also praise the beauty of the natural world, as in “Glorious Golden Birds Are Singing,” in which she paints a vivid scene through unusual juxtaposition: “Glorious golden birds are singing/ In heavy hexagonal snow./ Gold, brass, bronze, zinc, copper and tin. All are my kin.” Lei’s frankness and lyricism make her a significant voice in Chinese poetry, one that rightfully deserves a wider international audience. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Yi Lei’s astonishing poems, steeped in disquiet and desire, are at once aching and incendiary. Tracy K. Smith and Changtai Bi have coaxed them into English respectfully, inventively, and gorgeously. . . . A resonant conversation between two exceptional poets.”—Jhumpa Lahiri

“Even posthumously, Yi Lei remains one of the most revolutionary voices in Chinese poetry. This volume presents the expertly translated English poems alongside their Chinese originals for a beautiful and essential collection for any poetry lover.”—Ms. Magazine

“These poems in English are a tour de force. . . . In our own moment of urgency, this collection is, as Smith says, essential.”—RHINO

From the Publisher