Hawk of the Mind

Yang Mu (the pen name of Wang Ching-hsien) was born and raised in Taiwan. He is the author of more than two dozen poetry and prose collections, including Propositions of Temporality, Interventions, Long and Short Ballads, and the memoir Memories of Mount Qilai: The Education of a Young Poet (Columbia, 2015). Among the many literary prizes he has received are the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature and the Cikada Prize (Sweden).Michelle Yeh is Distinguished Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor and cotranslator of No Trace of the Gardener: Poems of Yang Mu (1998) and The Columbia Sourcebook of Literary Taiwan (Columbia, 2014), among others.

• AcknowledgmentsBurning and Diffusing Through Eternity: An Introduction to Yang MuPoems The Star Is the Only Guide 1Water’s Edge To Time Fragment Folding Screen A Sequel to Han Yu’s “Mountain Rocks,” a Seven-Character Poem in the Old Style Snake: A Rondo Jizi of Yanling Hangs Up His Sword King Wu’s Night Encampment: A Suite Etudes: The Twelve Earthly Branches Sailing to Ireland Ireland Let the Wind Recite Manuscript in a Bottle Lines of the Hand Bring You Home to Hualian Solitude Forbidden Games 1 Paddy Field Region Light Rain To the Ancient Minor Realization Sonnet: The Travelers Tree in the College Looking Down Someone Asks Me a Question About Justice and Righteousness Tree Miaoyu Sits in Meditation Departing the Grasslands Sonnets on The Book of Changes Leaving a Banquet Early in Summer Heat Lama Reincarnated Village Sonnets In Lieu of a Letter Fable Number 2: Yellow Sparrow Variation on “A Traveler’s Heart” Hawk of the Mind Remembering Berkeley Written on Returning to the Northwest Dusk from an Upper Floor Episodic Capriccio for Solo Six Quatrains, Written in Fun Propositions of Temporality Chang’an A Lyric To the Angel Afternoon of a Gladiolus Lakeview Tale (In the meter of “Metamorphosis Two” by Philip Glass) Bohori (Khabarovsk, 1994) Midnight Solitude. 1910 St. Petersburg Grain Buds Ars Poetica Gazing Up New Songs Symbol A Flurry of Snow Seven Stars Bay The Previous Life Under the Pine Rabbits Rays of the Fading Sun The Vacated Seat Portrait of a Lady Song of Floss Flower Composed for the Lyrical Oboe Subject Misimpression Pheasant A Draw in a Game of Chess The Water Nymph Pindar’s Ode Fallen Leaves The Lost Ring—for Chechnya Written at Daybreak No Time Difference Ancient Banyan Tree in Tainan The Rite of Passage Ziye Extemporizes in Song War Forgotten The Heart Wavers Substitution Untitled 1 Untitled 2 The Fog and My Other Self Cycad Aulacaspis Scale Dragonfly Since You Went Away Betel Creek, Chinan Lakefront #2: Partita per Violoncello Pine Garden To the Tune “Behind the Soochow Curtain” Title Unknown Zuocang: Sakor Cloud Ship On Solitude Greece Discussing Poetry Writing with Someone Substance, Shadow, and Spirit Fern Songs Reading Dante at Year’s End Fluctuating Rhythm As Yet Unattained Written for a Meeting Lectures Variations on Zither Melodies No. 9 Listening to the Wind Autumn Preface to Manuscript in a Bottle Afterword to Someone: Poetry Is Written for People Afterword to Propositions of Temporality Afterword to Cycad Aulacaspis Scale Select Bibliography Translators

The work of Taiwanese poet Yang Mu brings vivid and playful pastoral imagery. He examines both Chinese and Western literary and cultural traditions through his personal lens, and his writing retains its beautifully lyrical nature through the translation.