Reviews for Translating Mo'um

The average rating for Translating Mo'um based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-06-09 00:00:00 Paul Duncan A lovely collection; in some ways it felt like a first book (which it is), but that's alright! It made me want to read more of Cathy Park Hong's work. The poems are emotive and complex and thoughtful and fit together well as individual peices and as a book. My favorite poems included "Ontology of Chang and Eng, The Original Siamese Twins," "All the Aphrodisiacs," "On Splitting," "Movement," "Translating Michin'yum", "To Collage a Beginning" and "Wing" (as perhaps is clear, I liked the middle section of the book best, though it was all good). The poems are personal, historical, and formal, like how "All the Aphrodisiacs" opens blowfish arranged on a saucer. Russian roulette. angelic slivers. ginseng. cut antlers alloted in bags dogs on a spit, a Dutch girl winking holds a bowl of shellfish. whit cloth, drunkennes. a different language leaks out-- the idea of throat, an orifice, a cord-- you say it turns you on when I speak Korean. This lead-up makes the later invocation of "han-gul: the language first used by female entertainers, poets, prostitutes" feel like a natural continuation of the imbrication of her life and the history of both anti-Asian racism in the states and of Koreaa, without ever letting go of the glittering ellipsis of the insistence on lower case, of the refusal to explain how these things are related, of the sudden, sharp appearance of a couplet as the fourth verse paragragh when most of them are single lines. This or "On Splitting" is probably my favorite poem and they are both indicative of the very best attributes of collection in much the same way that this exceprt works--far from the only poem that does this work. She is not interested in writing pain for those of us who cannot share it, instead taking full advantage of poetry as a reflective and even impersonal mode to speak to the intimate, the personal, and the systemic limitations that the person runs up against--as well as the possibility of joy and pleasure. I look forward to reading more!

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-08 00:00:00 Robert Dangelo The instances of brilliance make this well worth the effort, but not nearly as coherent as her later work Engine Empire. The frequent mystification can be an asset at times, but also risks becoming confounding in a few pieces. Still, chock full of fascinating insights and compelling explorations.