The Magpie at Night - by Li Qingzhao (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

A luminous new translation of the greatest woman poet in Chinese history, highlighting Li Qingzhao's iconoclastic verse and showcasing her visionary portrait of the inner workings of the artist's mind.

The Magpie at Night is a lyrical and searching portrait of the inner life of Li Qingzhao, one of the greatest poets in Chinese literary history. These spare and arresting poems evoke with rare immediacy the quiet and haunting beauty of country life during the Song dynasty; the unseen, restive labor of the poet; and Li Qingzhao's bracing and complex take on what it means to create art as a woman in the shadow of exile, war, imprisonment, and an unwelcoming literary establishment.

In Wendy Chen's splendid new translation, each of Li Qingzhao's ci--lyrics that were originally set to music--is as sharp and fresh as the edge of a new spring leaf. These richly textured bolts of melody tell a story that will resonate with scholars eager to restore this iconic figure to the canon of classical Chinese poetry, as well as with contemporary readers who will relate to the strikingly modern mode in which she delivers her wry, unsentimental, and bracing thoughts on art and posterity.

Review Quotes

"Chen untangles the essences of poems into delicate, calm, and incisive moments." --Poetry Northwest

"Translator Wendy Chen's Introduction offers a useful overview of and introduction to twelfth-century Chinese poet Li Qingzhao...Certainly, Chen's version seems closer to the more seething spirit of the original. . . Chen's are fine renderings of the verse." --M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

"The Magpie at Night teaches us many a lesson of transformations: we learn that hair "grieves" and the water clock is "quiet," we learn that the "pot of spring" can break apart memory. But most of all, we learn that poetry can survive the ravages of war and time, and after many centuries--thanks to Wendy Chen's clarifying translations--the Song dynasty classic visits us in English. I am grateful for such transformations." -- Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic

"Wendy Chen translates with a true poet's sensitivity to language, metaphor, and image. Indeed, to bring Li Qingzhao's poems to an English-speaking audience with such precision and obvious skill is a remarkable achievement. Here are poems as timeless as they are timely, as mysterious as they are rewarding."
--Kristina Marie Darling, author of Daylight Has Already Come: Selected Poems

"Li Qingzhao's poems conjure the sound of rain on banana leaves, pale clouds "smudging the moon," the momentary solace of a dream, and how "longing saturates the human world, / the heavens." Her remarkable attention is gifted to us by Wendy Chen's remarkable acuity."--Michael Prior, author of Burning Province

"To read Li Qingzhao's work is to feel an intensity of spirit that says--even time cannot erase me. Wendy Chen's brilliant new translation ought to ensure that remains true. What heartache, what imagery, what absolute mastery there is in every line here." --John Freeman, author of Wind, Trees

About the Author

Li Qingzhao (1084-1151), also known as Yi'an Jushi, is considered the greatest woman poet in Chinese history, though only two English translations of her works remain in print today. During her lifetime, she defied cultural expectations for women by writing and persevering through war, exile, imprisonment, and the loss of her fortune.

Wendy Chen is the author of the novel Their Divine Fires and the poetry collection Unearthings. She is the recipient of prizes and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, MacDowell, and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into multiple languages, and she has taught and spoken at the Academy of American Poets, Poets and Writers, Poetry Foundation, and Yale University. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is the editor of Figure 1.