Year

2012

Text

Type

Publication

Mentioned People (1)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (1)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1986	Wei, An. From Life on earth [ID D29714]. Thomas Moran : In 1986, the poet Hai Zi introduced Wei An to Henry David Thoreau's Walden; inspired by the book. Wei An turned from poetry to prose in the style of Thoreau's observations. In the winter of 1986, Wei An read Xu Chi's translation of Walden, and the book changed his life. He discovered what he called Thoreau's "free, unrestrained, simple and open" organic style, and began composing in prose that, like Thoreau's, was poetic. He said the middle way fit him. As an American, I have an impulse to regard him as a naturalist, but his work resists this. For Wei An, the essence of Thoreau was not a "return to nature" but rather the "completion of man." Having grown up in the age of irony, I sometimes find it difficult to translate the unguarded expression of emotion and the direct discussion of truth, beauty, and goodness that are Wei An's idioms. His work reminds me, however, that our engagement with nature must necessarily be both romantic and scientific, and that the two cannot—or at least should not—be separated.	Person: Hai, Zi Person: Thoreau, Henry David Person: Wei, An