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Lotus Lovers
Book by Hamill, Sam
Hardcover
First published May 1, 1985
10 people want to read
About the author
Sam Hamill
97 books32 followersPoet, editor, translator, and essayist, Sam Hamill is author of more than thirty books including two from BOA Editions, Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck(2002). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards, the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry. He co-founded Copper Canyon Press, and has worked extensively in prisons and with battered women and children.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 14, 2025
Details about the book:
1985 Coffee House Press, Saint Paul.
The inside covers offers this blurb, "This exquisitely printed book will delight a lover or intrigue a scholar. These poems warm us through the centuries with their erotic charm."
This small book is the result of the National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Foundation. It contains 24 poems, evenly split between two female Chinese poets: Tzu Yeh and Li Ch'ing-chao. The poems were translated by Sam Hamill, who also provides a 4 page introduction. It has simple line drawings on a handful of pages. The book is roughly 30 pages long. The colophon says about 1500 editions were printed.
Tzu Yeh was a 4th century (Chin Dynasty) wineshop girl (aka geisha aka high-class prostitute) who is known only from 115 poems.
Li Ch'ing-chao (the "Empress of Song") was from the 12th century (Sung Dynasty) as a child of literary family who married into another literary family, both of whom supported her poetic endeavors (rather unique for the time).
The poems:
While the blurb and the intro tease us with erotic statements, only a few were of that ilk. The majority were about longing and loneliness, the heartbreak of lost lovers or the passing of a seasons. Some are to be sung to known Chinese melodies.
1985 Coffee House Press, Saint Paul.
The inside covers offers this blurb, "This exquisitely printed book will delight a lover or intrigue a scholar. These poems warm us through the centuries with their erotic charm."
This small book is the result of the National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Foundation. It contains 24 poems, evenly split between two female Chinese poets: Tzu Yeh and Li Ch'ing-chao. The poems were translated by Sam Hamill, who also provides a 4 page introduction. It has simple line drawings on a handful of pages. The book is roughly 30 pages long. The colophon says about 1500 editions were printed.
Tzu Yeh was a 4th century (Chin Dynasty) wineshop girl (aka geisha aka high-class prostitute) who is known only from 115 poems.
Li Ch'ing-chao (the "Empress of Song") was from the 12th century (Sung Dynasty) as a child of literary family who married into another literary family, both of whom supported her poetic endeavors (rather unique for the time).
The poems:
While the blurb and the intro tease us with erotic statements, only a few were of that ilk. The majority were about longing and loneliness, the heartbreak of lost lovers or the passing of a seasons. Some are to be sung to known Chinese melodies.
Displaying 1 of 1 review