This book, How Heavy the Breath of God, is one I return to again and again for its sense of being simultaneously away while also coming home to oneself. The poems are arranged in a travel sequence, starting in tropical locations such as Ecuador and Guatemala and ending up back in the southern U.S., in Texas. While not necessarily literal, the arrangement does feel logical. There’s an outward to inward arc to the work as a whole.
Sometimes what a poem does is remind us of a mood or moment. It conjures up our own memories even if we do not have enough information to understand the poet’s specific memory. The Ou-Yang Hsiu poem, “Far Off Mountains” from Love & Time, translated by J. P. Seaton, works this way.
Selections of Ou-Yang Hsiu’s poetry appear in the collection “Love & Time, The Poems of Ou-Yang Hsiu,” translated by J. P. Seaton, 1989, Copper Canyon Press.
This post is part 1 of 2. Part 1 will cover form and background. Part 2 will cover content, and look closely at one translated poem.
Ou-Yang Hsiu lived from 1007-1072 in Sung Dynasty China. Raised in poverty and primarily self-educated, he became both a scholar and a government administrator. He was known for his strong code of ethics.
Ou-Yang Hsiu didn’t follow the approved pattern of highly formal poems on limited, conventional subject matter, full of obscure allusions.
Which sounds like about what the non-poetry reader thinks of poetry today. Hard to understand, needing someone to decode it for the reader. Something only for the in-crowd. You can’t really blame people. Schools tend to reinforce this approach. A student deciphers a poem to figure out ‘what it really means’ instead of understanding it, at least on one level, without overly-educated interpretation.
Here’s the third and final post in this series regarding Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs. You can find Part 1 (Craft) and Part 2 (Content Connections) in earlier posts.
Lots of links for further reading and listening, but I warn you that the topics of depression, alcoholism and suicide will come up. Again.
But first, my rant.
This is Part 2 of a 3 part series on Berryman’s Dream Songs. You can find Part 1 in an earlier post.
I was re-reading John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs and finished my re-read on the 45th anniversary of Berryman’s death. That is a creepy coincidence which I didn’t see coming.
