Maples in the Mist: Poems for Children from the Tang Dynasty - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068812044X ISBN 13: 9780688120443

Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1996

Synopsis

A collection of short poems written over 1000 years ago by such poets of the Tang Dynasty as Li Po, Yin Luan, and Du Mu

About this title

Review:

The Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) is often referred to as the Golden Age of China. Poems from that era are widely considered the finest classical poems in China's 2000 year history. Translator Minfong Ho has assembled a collection of simple poems which were traditionally taught to children and will certainly give young readers images to ponder, as in Moon: When I was little/I thought the moon was a white jade plate,/Or maybe a mirror in Heaven/Flying through the blue clouds. Exquisite illustrations by Jean and Mou-sien Tseng not only illuminate the poems but serve as a lovely introduction to another culture's history. For all ages.

About the Author:

In Her Own Words...

"I grew up on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. Home was an airy house next to a fishpond and a big garden, with rice fields, where water buffalo wallowed in mudholes, on the other side of the palm trees. I liked the usual things--eating roasted coconuts and fried bananas, chasing catfish in the grass in the rain.

"Although I write in English, my first language was Chinese. Because my parents are from China, they praised me, scolded me, told me long bedtime stories, and recited poetry to me all in Chinese. No wonder, then, that I think of Chinese as the language of my heart. As I grew older, I absorbed Thai from interacting with people in the busy streets and marketplaces and temple fairs of Bangkok. Thai for me is a functional language, and I think of it as the language of my hands. Only much later did I team English from strict teachers in school, and so I think of English as the language of my head.

"I started to write only after I left home, as a way to conjure up Thailand for myself, to combat homesickness white Studying at Cornell University. There was a greenhouse on campus with a single potted banana tree in it. During my first winter, I used to sit near that tree and imagine that I was home. Soon, however, I realized that words could evoke images of home even more effectively than the banana tree, and I began to write down notes about the things I missed. My first book, Sing to the Dawn (1975), grew naturally out of those notes.

"I met my husband, John Dennis, at an antiwar demonstration while we were both students at Cornett. In 1976, six years and more than three hundred letters later, we were married. It took a Catholic church wedding and a Chinese tea ceremony (both in Singapore) and a Buddhist wrist-binding ritual (in a Thai village) to satisfy our families and friends.

"I am lucky that John has learned fluent Thai and some Chinese, and that his work often takes us to Asia. Our three children--Danfung, Mei-Mei, and Chris-have had a chance to live in Thailand, Laos, and Singapore, so they have experienced many of the sounds and sights that I did as a child. Like me, and I hope like many children today, they are growing up comfortable with a blend of several cultures and languages."

About this edition

• Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 068812044X
• ISBN 13: 9780688120443
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 24
• Editor: Ho Minfong
• Illustrator: Tseng Jean, Tseng Mou-Sien