Finding Them Gone

Visiting China's Poets of the Past

von Red Pine

398 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

- Awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to travel across China and visit the graves of 36 Chinese poets. - Porter's intention was to place himself within the landscapes where the poets lived and wrote, to translate representative poems, and to present a travel narrative for an American audience. - When Porter arrives at a specific site - often with the aid of locals who know the terrain - he improvises rituals that involve small cups of American bourbon, incense, and reading poems aloud in Chinese. (His whiskey cups are featured on the front cover of the book.)- More than 200 translated poems, with Chinese originals, incorporated into the text. Many are translated into English for the first time.- Travel takes place by foot, bullet train, taxi, boat, bus, motorcycle, cable car, farmer's van, and, alas, ambulance- On day 25 Porter breaks his ankle and is denied treatment at the first hospital he is taken to because he is a foreigner- Porter is a very speedy and adept traveler, washing his clothes in hotel sinks, sleeping on trains and buses, hiring taxis for the day- When Porter finds a site closed, he bangs on doors, scales walls, and even tries to sneak into a military compound.