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book: Words from the Fire
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Words from the Fire

Poems by Jidi Majia
Languages: English, Chinese
Published/Copyright: 2018

About this book

Jidi Majia is one of China’s leading indigenous minority poets. In Words from the Fire he explores his Yi heritage in poems that incorporate Yi origin stories, myths, his endangered fire culture, environmental degradation, and the importance of poetic expression in a time of global changes. His writing is consistently tender, celebratory, and respectful of the natural world and the dignity of all people. He has received major awards in China and abroad, and has been translated into over twenty languages in thirty countries. His most recent honor is the Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize and Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK’s King’s College, Cambridge.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Jidi Majia Born in 1961, Jidi Majia belongs to China’s Yi ethnic minority group, living in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He graduated from Southwest Nationalities University, in Chengdu, and came to national attention when his book of poems Song of My First Love won the Third China National Poetry Prize in 1988. Since then, his reputation as a poet has spread worldwide. His work has been translated into over twenty languages and published in over thirty countries. The most recent of his many international awards are the 2017 Bucharest Poetry Prize, the 2017 Ianicius Prize of Poland, and Lifetime Achievement Award of Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize from King’s College Cambridge. He has served as Vice President and Member of Secretariat of the China Writers Association and vice-president of the All-China Youth Federation; he is currently vice-governor of Qinghai Province.

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    Frontmatter

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    Contents

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    Editor’s Note

    xi
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    Self-Portrait

    1
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    Reply

    2
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    Nuosu People Discuss Fire

    2
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    Confessions of a Mouth Harp

    3
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    Contrast

    3
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    The Fighting Bull Who Died Long Ago

    6
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    Mothers’ Hands

    7
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    Black River

    8
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    Headscarf

    9
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    Mouth Harp Maker

    10
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    Song of the Nuosu People

    13
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    Thanking a River

    14
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    For Myself

    14
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    Listening to the Mantra for Sending Off the Soul

    15
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    Understanding

    15
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    The Blue Sheep of Gulilada

    16
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    Tribal Rhythms

    17
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    Lullaby

    18
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    Perceptions

    20
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    Rhapsody in Black

    20
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    Stones

    22
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    Days

    22
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    Hidden Vestiges

    23
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    In the Mountains

    24
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    Bitter Buckwheat

    24
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    Buried Words

    26
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    The Unseen Man

    27
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    The Bimo’s Voice

    28
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    Saddle

    28
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    First Love

    29
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    Last Summons

    31
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    Dream Variation

    32
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    Writing a Book of Remembrance

    33
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    A Migrating Tribe

    34
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    Dusk Yearning

    36
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    Autumn Portrait

    36
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    Butuo Maiden

    37
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    A Past Event

    38
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    Epigraph

    39
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    The Colors in Nuosu People’s Dreams

    40
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    Night

    41
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    Invisible Oscillation

    42
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    The Sun

    43
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    Just Because

    44
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    For a Butuo Maiden

    45
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    Untitled

    46
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    Soul’s Address

    46
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    Confessions of a Hunter’s Child

    47
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    Eternal Declaration

    48
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    Hunter’s Path

    48
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    The Final Myth

    49
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    Muntjac Call

    50
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    Dusk

    51
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    Lugu Lake

    52
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    Dulohxo Dance

    53
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    Eagle Claw Goblet

    53
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    Song for My Mother

    54
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    For Indigenous Americans

    55
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    Shaluo River

    56
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    Rifle

    57
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    My Hometown Dajishaluo

    57
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    Waiting

    58
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    Saying Good-bye to Greater Liangshan

    58
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    The Old Man and the Cuckoo

    60
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    The Old Singer

    60
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    Ballad for an Old Man

    61
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    Pigment

    62
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    People Ask...

    62
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    I Want to Say to You

    64
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    Serenity

    65
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    Goat

    66
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    Stranger

    66
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    For Salvatore Quasimodo’s Enemies

    67
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    Letter

    67
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    Autumn

    68
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    Christ and the General

    68
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    Autumn’s Eyes

    69
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    The Last Lush

    69
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    Eulogy for the World’s Indigenous Peoples

    71
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    O’Keeffe’s Home

    72
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    The Deer Looks Back

    72
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    Missing My Youth

    73
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    Giving Thanks to Mother Earth

    74
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    Freedom

    75
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    I Love Them

    75
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    For 1987

    76
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    Revering Life

    76
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    For the Rivers of This World

    78
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    The Small Train in My Memory

    79
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    The Mediterranean Sea

    80
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    Roman Sun

    81
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    The South

    82
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    Island

    82
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    Water and Glass Venice

    85
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    Visiting Dante

    85
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    Hair

    86
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    Perhaps I’ve Never Forgotten

    87
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    But . . .

    88
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    Untitled

    89
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    For Them

    89
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    I Once . . .

    90
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    Homeland

    90
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    Tiwanaku

    91
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    The Discovery of Life and Water

    92
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    Mask

    92
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    Face

    93
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    The Real Truth

    93
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    River

    94
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    Rose Ancestor

    95
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    Alpaca

    96
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    The Starry Skies of the Jiana Mani Stones

    96
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    A Poem Written Two Ways

    100
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    I Write My Poems Between the Land and the Sky

    102
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    Mulan

    103
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    The Flow of Time

    104
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    Indigenous People’s Coca

    104
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    Condor: The Divine Bird

    105
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    Cantuta

    105
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    A Dim Fire Flickers in the Fire Pit

    106
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    Identity

    107
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    Flames And Words

    108
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    Giuseppe Ungaretti’s Poems

    109
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    The Trees Of Jilebute

    110
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    I’m Waiting For You Here

    111
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    Your Breath

    112
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    Traveler Of This World

    113
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    At The Cemetery

    114
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    Silence

    115
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    The Origin Of Poetry

    116
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    That Was Our Father’s Generation

    117
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    Split Self

    120
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    Passing Through The River Of Time

    121
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    César Vallejo’s Grave

    122
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    For My Mother

    123
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    Investigating

    124
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    Undying Muse

    124
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    Reflected Light On Snow And The Color Of Heaven

    125
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    For My Motherland

    128
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    Mouth Harp

    130
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    Personal Identity, Group Voice, Human Awareness

    131
    Jidi Majia
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    Translator’s Note

    136
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    About the Art

    139
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 4, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780824881849
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824881849
eBook ISBN: 9780824881849
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
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