“When Will I Be Home?”
When will I be home? I don’t know.
In the mountains, in the rainy night,
The autumn lake is flooded.
Someday we will be together again.
We will sit in the candlelight by the west window.
And I will tell you how I remember you
Tonight on the stormy mountain.
by Li Shang-Yin
Hig is the main character in The Dog Stars by Peter Heller and “When Will I Be Home?” is his favorite poem.
Li Shang-Yin (c. 813 to 858) is considered the last great poet of the Tang Dynasty. Li’s work was a departure from previous Chinese poetry because of his interest and the mood of his poems. Romance began to appear in the poetry of Tu Mu and Li Ho; however, with Li Shang-Yin romance became a central theme, especially in his experimental poetry. Li influenced Tz’u, a new poetry form, with romance and eroticism being the principle concerns.
With his second innovation, Li believed a poem should embody mysteries. Poetry should comprise a consciousness blended with the inner patterns of the cosmos, a primal vitality. Li wanted his poems to create mood and move atmosphere, rather than focusing on clarity and statement. His poems are so elusive and mysterious that when I first read his work in May 2009, I found his poems hard to understand and enjoy. Many readers feel this elusiveness is his poetry’s great strength. For his time, Li pushed experimentation to its limits.
Li’s poems are symbols and they create mysterious worlds which I also found to be an interesting association with The Dog Stars. Li Shang-Yin and Peter Heller concentrate on humanity and both are experimental. Both writers are mysterious and are influenced by the inner patterns of human beings and the primal mentality of the cosmos.
Peter Heller’s odd stream of consciousness style created inner reflection and a mysterious mood, hypnotizing me, his reader, to become a part of his postapocalyptic world. I found reading Dog Stars to be an experience filled with transcendentalism, a collection of bizarre human relationships held together by nature.
The Dog Stars prompted me to read Li and I feel more comfortable now going back to his work. And so I found a favorite of Li’s poetic lines from The Brocade Ch’in:
(Ch’in is a musical instrument associated with romance and love.)
“Moonlight on vast seas–it’s a pearl’s tear”
* * *
For Dog Star readers who want to explore Li Shang-Yin, I suggest Classical Chinese Poetry: An Anthology edited and translated by David Hinton.
The Dog Stars is published by Knopf and is available as a signed first edition at Lemuria for $24.95. The Dog Stars is our August pick for First Editions Club.
Comments are closed.