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Pif Magazine
Pif Magazine |
The Water Radical
Despite Osing's modest claims about his own writing, the goal he has set for himself is an ambitious one. Not only does he wish to explore Chinese history, traditions and religion, he is also interested in "looking back upon [American] culture with perspectives inspired by China and southeast Asia." The Water Radical is separated into two chronological sections, the first year and the second and third years, within which Osing explores the differences and similarities between American and Chinese lifestyles and attitudes. His experiences in China lead him to look in a fresh way back at his own culture. Unfortunately, few poems offer a genuine blending of ideas from the east and west, and the book leaves the reader feeling very much like a foreigner. The sense of cultural estrangement was something that Osing experienced and wants to point out, but not necessarily to pass on. In the author's note, he states that the poems he wrote in China were more about himself than the Chinese. He claims that it is "the Asia of ourselves" that interested him. However, since in his opinion we already have a bit of Asia within ourselves, it seems odd that he has such problems bridging the incongruities between Chinese and American thought. He is often concerned with his failure to comprehend traditions or appreciate linguistic or religious subtleties, and feels enough like a foreigner to refer to himself as such. While this attitude seems highly appropriate for the first year of residency, once it continues into the second and third years the reader suspects that the basic understanding of Chinese culture that Osing struggles to secure for himself and his audience may be fundamentally unattainable. In addition to struggling with foreign ideas, a reader must also struggle with the writing. One of the biggest problems Osing has is his roundabout sentence structure: "Five stories, we would call them, one climbed/all the way up inside to get the only hole view/of three old towns now one". Such circuitous writing, combined with the tendency towards prose in his poems, make the pieces seem long and heavy. Typos and spelling errors from the printer are scattered throughout the book. These mistakes, combined with some of Osing's non-traditional and inconsistent punctuation choices, make for a disconcerting read. The language of the poems is elevated, and it is obvious that not only Osing but also his intended audience is educated. He quotes Yeats and often refers to both Chinese history and religion. Some knowledge of Buddhism helps to unravel the meanings behind poems, but a familiarity with Buddhist teachings assists in revealing a greater depth in some of the works. Yet, the intelligent tone and content of the poems is sometimes undermined by the inconsistent use of quotes in repeated phrases, and quotes used as a guide to point out catch phrases that would not likely be missed by an American reader: "[t]he red river-birch/ is 'live and direct' from good old eternity". An author who feels that his readers are intelligent enough to understand words like "quotidian" should also assume they are smart enough to pick up on the subtle jokes he makes. While picking on punctuation might seem trivial, heavy-handed and inconsistent usage — whether it spawned authorially, editorially or via the printing press — can and does sap the strength of poetic work. The poems and the attitude in the second and third years improve, and his progression towards a merging of cultures is visible. The sense of seriousness is gone from the first year, and a bit of irony has taken its place. The downside is that there are more poems in the first section, making the book overall seem unbalanced. Sometimes Osing seems to be trying, perhaps too hard, to make Chinese writing palatable for American readers. His obviously western writing background comes through in his works, and inserting Buddhist phrases such as "mind-womb" into an American poem only makes the distinctions more obvious. To say that Osing all together fails to fulfill the objective that he has set for himself would be incorrect. When he seems to be speaking from the heart and not the mind — writing about single sensory moments that touch him, such as his joy at splitting wood or the singing of the faithful in a Buddhist temple — he slips into the attitude he is searching for. The book ends on one of these moments, and it is spectacular: "No Eden of excuses ever existed more than/the incandescent blue in heron's wing,/whose homely song earthen mate turns to hear,/ and turning defines sunlight's blue chill." The combination of Christian ideas with Buddhist lucidity seems here both inclusive and natural. The most impressive aspect of this book is that Osing allows readers to experience both an American view of Asian culture and to look back at their own culture through Asian sensibilities. However, at the end Osing still seems estranged from the Chinese culture that he is trying to represent, which leaves readers uneasy about their own relationships both with the text and the views that are being expressed. The most inspiring instances of poetry are buried within chatty lines that sometimes seem contrived. The Water Radical, like the poems contained within, needs a bit of trimming in order to accentuate its more admirable qualities. Tell us what you think. Email talkback@pifmagazine.com Want Pif to review your book? Lisa Ciccarello wishes she could "get it right one more time every time."
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