Marilyn Chin "Turtule Soupe"

Marilyn Chin

Marilyn Chain born in Hong Kong and raised in Portland, Oregon, USA. Her books of poetry have become Asian American classics and are taught in classrooms internationally. They include Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (W.W. Norton & Co., 2002); The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty (1994); and Dwarf Bamboo (1987). She is also the author of a novel, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen (2009).

Career

University of Iowa, Iowa City, translator and editor in International Writing Program, 1978-82; San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, assistant professor of creative writing, 1988-96, professor of English, 1996—, director of M.F.A. program, 1999—. Visiting assistant professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1990, and University of California—San Diego, 1993; University of Hawaii, Hilo, member of faculty, 1997; senior Fulbright professor, National Donghwa University, Taiwan, 1999-2000, visiting professor, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2001.

Selected bibliography

Poetry

• Dwarf Bamboo Greenfield Review Press, 1987, ISBN 9780912678719
• The Phoenix Gone, the Terrace Empty Milkweed Editions, 1994, ISBN 9780915943876; Milkweed Editions, 2009, ISBN 9781571314390
• Rhapsody in Plain Yellow W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, ISBN 9780393324532
• Hard Love Province W. W. Norton & Company, June 8, 2014, ISBN 9780393240962

Fiction

• Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen. W. W. Norton & Company. 2009. ISBN 9780393077278.

Edited Anthologies

• Victoria M. Chang, ed. (2004). "Forward". Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252071744.
• Ken Weisner, Marilyn Chin, David Wong Louie, ed. (1991). Dissident Song: A Contemporary Asian Anthology. Quarry West.

Translations

• Ai Qing (1985). The Selected Poems of Ai Qing. Translated by Marilyn Chin and Eugene Eoyang.
• Yoshimasu Gozo (1980). Devil’s Wind: A Thousand Steps or More. Translated by Marilyn Chin. Oakland University.

Turtle Soup

For Ben Huang

You go home one evening tired from work,
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Twelve hours hunched over the hearth
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).

You say, “Ma, you’ve poached the symbol of long life;
that turtle lived four thousand years, swam
the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.
Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,
grazed on splendid sericulture.”
(So, she boils the life out of him.)

“All our ancestors have been fools.
Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles
to kill a famous Manchu and ended up
with his head on a pole? Eat, child,
its liver will make you strong.”

“Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice.”
Her sobbing is inconsolable.
So, you spread that gentle napkin
over your lap in decorous Pasadena.

Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.
The golden decal on the green underbelly
says “Made in Hong Kong.”

Is there nothing left but the shell
and humanity’s strange inscriptions,
the songs, the rites, the oracles?

Online Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/chin/online.htm

Questions and answers:

Explorations of the text.

1. Notice the author’s choice of the word “cauldron” in line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chosen “cauldron” rather than “pot”?
Twelve hours hunched over the hearth
(who knows what else is in that cauldron)

In essence, a cauldron and a pot relatively serves the same purpose; it’s a container, usually round in shape, for cooking in over a fire. However, by adopting the word “cauldron”, suggests that the author is trying to portray an image of old heritage.
This is because a cauldron is known to be utilized in the past. Where in fact the more commonly used word of ‘pot’ which also delivers the same usage nowadays, the word “cauldron” might represent nostalgia and some sort of reminiscing from the author, of her pasts and roots.

2. Chin refers to “the Wei”, “the Yellow”, and “the Yangtze”. Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?

You say, “Ma, you’ve poached the symbol of long life;
that turtle lived four thousand years, swam
the Wei, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.
The names; “the Wei”, “the Yellow”, and “the Yangtze”, are specific rivers that can be found in China. Hence the author’s choice to mention these rivers inside her poem has been done to express a distinct reason and that is to tell her readers a hint of what home might have meant to her. It illustrates a sense of belonging and familiarity.

3. What is the tone of this poem?

In this poem, Turtle Soup, the overall tone suggests that the author is being nostalgic. She is recalling incidents and tales of the past that somewhat is a representation of China by using phrases like “turtle lived four thousand years”, “witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang” and “Remember Uncle Wu”.