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A review by mystic319
My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree: Selected Poems by Yi Lei
4.0
This is an extremely beautiful poetry collection. I loved how Yi Lei intertwines eroticism and nature, particularly with her numerous references to flowers. Additionally, I think her reflections on womanhood and what it feels like to be both trapped by social expectations and liberated by one's own desires is more truthful than many other works I've seen that try to do the same.
I appreciate the translator's introduction, although I felt this collection could have also included the direct translations from Mandarin by Changtai Bi. Since I can't read Mandarin, seeing the changes Tracey Smith made to each transliterated poem would have been very interesting. However, this may be my bias as a student of classics and perhaps the editors did not consider the exploration of the translation itself to be as interesting as the poems.
I appreciate the translator's introduction, although I felt this collection could have also included the direct translations from Mandarin by Changtai Bi. Since I can't read Mandarin, seeing the changes Tracey Smith made to each transliterated poem would have been very interesting. However, this may be my bias as a student of classics and perhaps the editors did not consider the exploration of the translation itself to be as interesting as the poems.