"No art without startle." The opening line of the first poem presented below lead to a vision of literature that we can believe in, and Yuan Changming indeed startles us with a sense of clarity in this stunning series of works. "No Europe without a rope." That in itself is a novel, from beginning to middle to end. The footprints of history are tattooed intricately throughout Yuan Changming's work. Sounds create earworms that lead to other sounds that are loud, insistent and beautiful. "The Genetic Map of English Languaculture" manages to articulate, in a single letter, the colonial hegemony of English literature that many involved with ZiN Daily are trying to actively challenge and undo through multilingual and border-crossing cultural production and sharing in which no single language expresses universal dominance.
Be sure to visit Poetry Pacific, a Vancouver-based magazine that Yuan co-edits, "a literary e.zine for true lovers of words and wisdom."
Yuan Changming, nine-time Pushcart and one-time Best of Net nominee, published monographs on translation before moving out of China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver; credits include Best of Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline, London Magazine, Threepenny Review and 1309 others across 39 countries.
35 Selected English Word Idioms
No art without startle No belief without a lie No business without sin No character without an act No coffee without a fee No courage without rage No culture without a cult
No entrance without a trance No Europe without a rope No freedom without a reed No friendship without an end No glove without love No ghost without a host
No groom without a room No infancy without fancy No life without if No malady without a lady No manifestation without man No mason without a son
No millionaire without a lion No passage without a sage No pharmacy without harm No plant without a plan No prevention without an event No product without a duct
No sight without a sigh No slaughter without laughter No splurge without urge No spring without a ring No substance without a stance No think without ink No truth without a rut
In Pursuit of Dao (or the Way)
To/To
Seek/Balance
Yang/Yin
From/With
Yin/Yang
Is/Isn’t
The same/The same
As/As
To/To
Seek/Balance
Yin/Yang
From/With
Yang/Yin
Before/Unless
We/You
Zigzag/Zagzig
Our Path/Your Way
With/Without
A thought/Any feeling
About/Towards
Nature/God
The Genetic Map of English Languaculture
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Directional Denotations
South: not unlike a raindrop
on a small lotus leaf
unable to find the spot
to settle itself down
in an early autumn shower
my little canoe drifts around
near the horizon
beyond the bare bay
West: like a giddy goat
wandering among the ruins
of a long lost civilization
you keep searching
in the central park
a way out of the tall weeds
as nature wraps new york
with mummy blue
East: within her beehive-like room
so small that a yawning stretch
would readily awaken
the whole apartment building
she draws a picture on the wall
of a tremendous tree
that keeps growing
until it shoots up
from the cemented roof
North: after the storm
all dust hung up
in the crowded air
with his human face
frozen into a dot of dust
and a rising speckle of dust
melted into his face
to avoid this cold climate
of his antarctic dream
he relocated his naked soul
at the dawn of summer
