I Am Your Transient Guest
(After a Yuan Dynasty scroll:“The Departure of Lady Wenji from the Nomad Camp”)
I am your transient guestYou are my celestial caravanThis palace is made of sandThis rebel camp reeks of muttonMy wedding veil is a trail of gnatsMy robe is a shredded colophonCross off my days with a black hare brushBlot out my eyes with obedienceThe camels dream on their kneesThe trees are naked servantsWar drums, bugles advanceGhosts are shouldering my palanquinWho dares to utter the tale of Lady WenjiWhose history cannot be forgotten"I'll shout your poems," squawk the vultures"I'll clean your bones," promise the scorpionsWho murdered my family and maids?Who drowned my songbirds and kittens?I was kidnapped by a barbarian kingAnd ransomed for a hundred thousand!The minister of the left says, "Cut your own throat!"The minister of the right says, "No compassion!"I say, "Kind sirs, please protect my sons; "They are not pure, but they are innocent!"Ghouls and simurghs barter at dusk Scavenger wolves howl treasonOh Soul Come back I am calling you!Oh Soul Come back reclaim this human!Do not speak in delusions for all are a delusionDo not speak of grief for all are aggrievedI finger my butterfly luteI strum my fated plectrumStriking the same fret fret fretSummoning the museum of heaven
Feature Date
- November 26, 2023
Series
- Editor's Choice
Selected By
- Heather Green
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“I Am Your Transient Guest” from SAGE: POEMS: by Marilyn Chin.
Published by W. W. Norton & Company on May 02, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by Marilyn Chin.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Marilyn Chin was born in Hong Kong. She is the author of five previous poetry collections and a novel. Her work has appeared in The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, and Best American Poetry, among other publications. She is the recipient of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and fellowships from the United States Artists Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, among other honors. A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, she lives in San Diego, California.
"[Marilyn] Chin writes with a fierce vulnerability. Sharing her deeply personal yet relatable experience during the pandemic, Sage is a window to the intense musings of a longtime activist poet that never rests. Both sage and succulent, [Chin] is a poet that holds your hand while she spins you at 100mph. Sage leaves you dazed and breathless, a profound feeling that stays with you, long after you’ve finished reading."
— Thi Nguyen, Poetry Society of America
"At the height of her poetic powers, Marilyn Chin channels Sage, alter ego, orator of sins, praise, urgency, and truth. There is a sharp edge at the end of each epiphany, as fine as a needle, edging close to the heart. Chin approaches national subjects such as democracy, immigration, and injustice as well as the quieter interior subject of artistic creation. Sage is a brazen songstress who 'enters the doorless door and breaks the knob,' and by all accounts is as tender as she is powerful, vulnerable as well as mighty. Sage reveals our 21st century complexities, straddling ruin and utter magic."
— Tina Chang, author of Hybrida
"Marilyn Chin’s sharp-witted and fresh sixth collection, Sage, speaks to the current moment with the gravitas, humor, and bite missing from many a pandemic-born collection."
— Rebecca Morgan Frank, LitHub
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