From between the brows of low rolling hills we have Awakened, from within the liquid gaze of the fog Awakened. It’s now the end of spring March, amidst a splendid attire of green, too Awakened. Sunlight strolls through yearning acacias Offering our peeping heads a sheer yellow And a smile. We are a people of […]
Xiang Yang 向陽
XIANG YANG 向陽 (1955 – ) is the pen name of Lin Qiyang 林淇瀁, a writer of poetry, essays, and children’s literature, among other things. Born in Nantou County, Taiwan, Xiang Yang is “a regional poet in the best sense of the word—his poetry comments on the universal human condition without sacrificing a sense of place” (John Balcom, translator). His poetry draws inspiration from his surroundings and his home, and on the whole he wrote works that speak of and to the Taiwan experience.
Xiang Yang’s hometown, the Guangxing Village in Nantou’s Lugu Township, was located near Dong Ding, a mountain famous for the oolong tea grown there. His parents owned a tea shop specializing in Dong Ding’s tea, and he fondly recalls, “When Mother tasted the teas, the store would be filled with the scent, like the sweet fragrance of blooming flowers rushing at the nose. The golden brew would be poured from the narrow spout into the cup, a golden spring flowing into a valley” (“十行土地吟哦獨行─謳歌台灣情愛的向陽,” 郭麗娟). And it was because tea leaves love the sun, because Lugu seemed always bathed in golden sunlight, that he later ended up with the pen name Xiang Yang 向陽—“seeking the sun.”
