I just read The Mandarin's latest publication in the magazine "Renditions", and found it very moving. It is a collection of quatrains written by women who lived within the confines of Tang Palace life.
His thoughtful translations open a personal view into the lives and thoughts of these women. Once the Emperor's ardor shifted to a new lady, most of the thousands that had once held his attention, languished in loneliness and isolation. That is why so many of these short poems are sad or melancholy. And beautiful!
Imagine writing a poem on a leaf and setting it to float away in a stream that runs through the grounds. Isolation, like that, would have led me to write poems and suffer. What a waste of beautiful, talented women. I have the feeling that an illicit relationship might have resulted in the woman's death, or demotion to latrine cleaner.
I look forward to reading his two new works when they are published:
"White Crane: Love Songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama" and "Broken Willow: the Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji".
I'm particularly curious about "White Crane", because I thought the Dalai Lamas were celibate. (Personal Opinion: Celibacy seems like such an unnatural rule to impose on these bodies we are packaged in.) Are they songs of spiritual love?
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