A Forest of Names 108 Meditations |
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| Author:
| Boyden, Ian |
| Series title: | Wesleyan Poetry Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-8195-7995-9 |
| Publication Date: | Sep 2020 |
| Publisher: | Wesleyan University Press
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $15.95 |
Book Description:
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Poems illuminate a hidden landscape in the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake How do we honor the dead? How do we commit them to memory? And how do we come to terms with the way they died? To start, we can name them. When schools collapsed in an earthquake in China, burying over 5,000 children, the government brutally prevented parents from learning who had died. Artist Ai Weiwei, at risk to his own safety, gathered the names of these children,...
More Description Poems illuminate a hidden landscape in the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake
How do we honor the dead? How do we commit them to memory? And how do we come to terms with the way they died? To start, we can name them. When schools collapsed in an earthquake in China, burying over 5,000 children, the government brutally prevented parents from learning who had died. Artist Ai Weiwei, at risk to his own safety, gathered the names of these children, and their names are the subject of this book. Each poem is a poetic meditation on the image and concept suggested by the etymology in the Chinese characters. This act of poetic translation is both a heartbreaking tribute to people whose names have been erased, and a healing meditation on how language suggests a path forward.
July 30
Ti?nw?i
Celestial Awe
He carried no iron into battle.
When he lifted his hand,
he brandished the sky.