{"product_id":"a-tower-built-downwards-zuo-xiang-xia-xiu-jian-de-ta-9781780376431","title":"A Tower Built Downwards: 一座向下修建的塔","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore and since his enforced exile from 1989, Yang Lian has been one of the most innovative and influential poets from China. Widely hailed in America and Europe as a highly individual voice in world literature, he has been translated into many languages. A Tower Built Downwards is the latest instalment of his poetry, written between 2019 and 2022. The different sections – short poems, sequences, and one long poem – form a single comprehensive statement of Yang’s recent explorations. It is rooted in his living experience of the historical retrogression of Hong Kong, the disaster of Covid-19, the global spiritual crisis, as well as his personal sadness at events such as his father’s death.  The creativity of the writing faces – is even excited by – the depth of the challenges of reality. The long title-poem in seven parts is a spiritual journey travelling back in time, completed back in the now, building up into 'a reincarnation within one', as endless time is transformed into multilayered poetical space, in Ai Weiwei’s words: 'This intellectual tower… [turns] the unsurpassable puzzles intermingled with life and death into an in-depth exploration of human emotion.'   Ai Weiwei's innovative cover image featuring CCTV cameras and chains made of gold stretches around the whole book, across French flaps and then continues inside the front and back covers of the book, becoming an extraordinary metaphor for the book’s content.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThose lonely Tang dynasty poets may be Yang’s original blues brothers, but he’s as much a modernist and symbolist in the vein of Mallarmé or Rimbaud […] Yang Lian’s work is rooted not in geography but in his own imagination […] to exist in Yang’s lines can be a gorgeous but frustrating adventure. -- Tim Kindseth * Time Magazine *\u003cbr\u003eRepressive regimes tend to have little problem acknowledging poets’ power to shape our opinions and our world. Some of those they exile settle in Britain. Yang Lian, a leading member of China’s Tiananmen generation, has just published his autobiographical masterpiece Narrative Poem in translation… A kind of wild lyricism marks the work… a sense of the explosive urgency of writing itself. -- Fiona Sampson * The i Paper *\u003cbr\u003eYang Lian is one of the most ambitious poets writing in Chinese today – indeed, one of the most ambitious poets writing in any language… Narrative Poem represents a stunning achievement of both poet and translator, bringing the two together almost as one. -- Lucas Klein * Translation and Literature *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9 \tAcknowledgements \t  11 \tIntroduction by Ai Weiwei  一，短诗  SHORT POEMS  \t \t根 \t17 \tRoot  \t\t致身边消失的陌生人——给武汉 \t 19 \tTo the Vanished Stranger Beside Us: Written for Wuhan  \t\t死海 \t20 \tDead Sea  \t\t青草祭 \t22 \tGreen Grass Offering  \t\t虚构·2020  \t24 \tFiction 2020  \t\t魇·2020 \t25 \tNightmares 2020  \t\t瘟疫实验室 （一——三） \t28 \tPlague Laboratory （1-3）  \t\t一只名叫“希望”的瓮 \t31 \tAn Urn Called ‘Hope’  \t\t奥威尔的新年 \t32 \tOrwellian New Year  \t\t奥维德的泉水 \t34\tOvid’s Spring Water  \t\t落：肖像 \t35 \tFalling: A Portrait  \t\t2019年12月19月: 冬至和诗 \t37 \t19th December 2019: A Response Poem of the Winter Solstice  \t\t柏林安哈尔特火车站大门 \t39 \tBerlin Anhalter Bahnhof Main Gate   \t\t树林中的铁轨 \t41 \tRailway Tracks in the Woods  \t\t音乐会上的狐狸幽灵 \t43 \tPhantom Foxes at a Concert  \t\t羽毛·石头 \t45 \tFeather – Stone  \t \t石头·羽毛 \t46 \tStone – Feather  \t\t“金沙，请听二十秒钟雨声” \t47 \t‘Jinsha, Please Listen to 20 Seconds of Rain’  \t\t在上博撫摸一只西周编钟 \t49 \tTouching a Set of Western Zhou Dynasty Bells in Shanghai Museum  \t\t听溥雪斋弹《梅花三弄》 \t50 \tListening to Pu Xuezhai Playing Three Plum Blossom Airs  \t\t溆浦美人夜歌 \t52 \tXupu Beauty Nocturne  \t\t星期一，以西湖为背景 \t54 \tMonday, with West Lake for a Backdrop  \t\t邋遢大士九十歌 \t56 \tMessmaster 90 Song  \t\t海上家书 \t58 \tLetter Home from at Sea  \t\t病毒隔离中的生日华尔兹（一——五） \t60 \tBirthday Waltz in Virus Isolation (1-5)  \t\t名字的诞生 \t63 \tBirth of a Name \t\t汕大，封存的家书 \t65 \tShantou University: A Sealed Letter Home  \t\t绚丽的不可解封之诗 \t66 \tMagnificent Nonblockable Poem  \t \t听茶 （一）  \t68 \tHear Tea (1)  \t \t听茶 （二）  \t69 \tHear Tea (2)  \t\t念湖 \t70 \tLake Longing  \t\t白千层 \t72 \tA Thousand White Layers  \t\t御花园·零与夜 \t73 \tImperial Garden. Zero and Night  \t\t御花园·孔雀 \t74\tImperial Garden. Peacock  \t\t御花园·牡蛎 \t75 \tImperial Garden. Oyster  \t\t御花园·铜舟 \t76 \tImperial Garden. Bronze Boat  \t\t御花园·墨乐 \t77 \tImperial Garden. Music of Ink  \t\t御花园·来德之风 \t78 \tImperial Garden. Laide’s Wind  \t\t御花园·玉圭 \t79 \tImperial Garden. Jade Tablet  \t\t御花园·石器时代 \t80 \tImperial Garden. Stone Age  \t\t御花园·最后的 \t81 \tImperial Garden. Final  \t\t罪恶研究 \t82 \tResearching Evil  \t\t反安魂曲 \t86 \tAnti-requiem   二，组诗  SEQUENCES  \t\t轮回·灵骨塔（98行） \t91 \tReincarnation – Stupa (98 Lines)  \t\t倒退的历史诗 \t95 \tPoems on Turning Back History  \t\t韩退之中元节，或从四面八方坍塌到我们头上的时光 \t98 \tHan (Retreater) Yu’s Hungry Ghost Day \t\tOr, Time That Collapses onto Our Heads from All Sides   \t\t高福里中元节，上海背影之歌 \t102 \tHungry Ghost Day at South Gate \t\tOr, A Song of the Back View of Shanghai  \t\t鹤乡 \t107 \tCrane Land  \t\t大夫，我是你身边一滴水 \t111 \tMaster, I’m a Drop of Water by Your Side   三，长诗  LONG POEMS  \t\t一座向下修建的塔 \t119 \tA Tower Built Downwards   \t\t迷宫 \t137 \tLabyrinth   \t\t奥威尔的新年（诗剧版本） \t151 \tOrwell’s New Year – A Verse Drama","brand":"Bloodaxe Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49411757867351,"sku":"9781780376431","price":13.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781780376431.jpg?v=1730514592","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-tower-built-downwards-zuo-xiang-xia-xiu-jian-de-ta-9781780376431","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}