Retort Magazine

Fiona Sze-Lorrain (www.fionasze.com) is the author of a book of poetry, Water the Moon(Marick Press, 2010). She writes and translates in English, French and Chinese. Born in Singapore, she grew up in a hybrid of cultures, and graduated from Columbia and New York Universities before pursuing a Ph.D at Paris IV-Sorbonne. A guzheng (ancient Chinese harp) concertist, she has performed worldwide. She serves as one of the editors at Cerise Press(www.cerisepress.com), and has authored a book of critical prose and photography with Gao Xingjian (2000 Nobel Prize in Literature),Silhouette/Shadow: The Cinematic Art of Gao Xingjian (Contours, 2007). Her CD (with erhuperformer Guo Gan), In One Take is forthcoming in Spring 2010. She is also the co-creator of Vif éditions, an independent poetry publishing house in the City of Lights, and is in the midst of completing a French critical monograph on Gao Xingjian’s dramatic literature. Currently, she lives in Paris, France and New York City.

I encounter the poem “Moon” as one center within your chapters of poems, its opening lines jump-cutting to closing lines in the following: “Moon // symbolizes fear in my culture, / a dark force that hunts / until you cower… From sky to sky, I gulped / silver stars, clock hands / that moved against the tide. / Their delicate flight / blanched the celestial space. / Secrets swallowed the moon.” I adore the title of your book as both an act of instruction and a work in naming. Tell us what went into the titling of this book.

Moon and all its implications — including Time (capital “T”) and not time (small “t”) — is indeed a central image and focus in this collection. The cover image of the book illustrates this intention as well. Look at the clock. Metaphorically speaking, it is none other than the moon. Entitled “Cortona” by Blake Dieters, this black-and- white photograph also contains a starking graphite feel that accentuates a physical, dimensional timelessness in general.

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