Yao Lu’s first poetry book: The Rose Drifting with Destiny

On Monday, the 6th of June 2022:

MeiGuiLu Publishing is delighted to announce the launching of “The Rose Drifting with Destiny” poetry book by Yao Lu. Every poetry enthusiast, including critics, will surely love this book.
In her first-ever publication, Yao Lu debuts her personal collection of poems inspired by various themes in the melody of life. Through the depiction of a solitary rose going on an adventure, the poems truly give an insight on how one can truly blossom and attain spiritual wealth.

MeiGuiLu Publishing, formerly FM Publishing, is a start-up brand created by authors for fellow authors, envisioning and endeavoring the provision of services that puts the author and his work very center of the publication.
The Rose Drifting with Destiny will be available on Amazon, Alibris, and on many of your favorite online retailers starting on the 20th of June 2022.

Following are Yao Lu’s and my prefaces:

My preface:

Inexorable, time passes. Sometimes it flows calmly down the watershed of life towards uncharted dark blue seas, other times it flies as an unreachable eagle. Little can be done to capture the moment as life freewheels around us like a whimsical butterfly. Yet, in rare circumstances, time solidifies into a vivid memory that sculpts the rest of one’s life.

This is what I experience reading Yao Lu’s poems; unforgettable vignettes of life painted with the magic of poetry.

时光无情地流逝。有时它平静地从生活的分水岭流向未知的深蓝色海洋，其他时候它是一只遥不可及的鹰一样飞翔。 当生活如同一只异想天开的蝴蝶在我们身边随心所欲地翩跹时，我们几乎无法捕捉到这一刻。 然而，在极少数情况下，时间会定格成生动的记忆去塑造一个人的余生。

这就是我阅读姚露诗歌的感受：用诗歌的魔法描绘出令人难忘的生活片段。

Yao Lu’s Preface 

Man is a social being, and each person is inevitably labeled in society in many ways. These labels are fixed impressions formed in the group’s subconscious through a combination of elements such as a person’s profession, personality, and interests. As a young girl, I was obsessed with spending my days alone in a closed room, reading all sorts of famous novels and aspiring to become a professional writer. But my childhood dream was far from the label real life had given me, and it was like a crystal ball locked away in the dusty halls of memory. 

It was only after the outbreak of the coronavirus that I began to write professionally, and the travel ban and strict quarantine made me look out of the window for a long time and do nothing but reading and writing poetry, as all true poets do, to express my innermost pain. 

I read the works of great Western poets such as Whitman, Yeats and Wordsworth, while reciting many famous ancient Chinese texts, Tang poems, and song lyrics by heart during my nine years of compulsory education. Emily Dickinson said of the literary genre of poetry, “What a frugal vehicle it is for conveying the soul of man, that this channel can be trodden by the poorest of men and need not hurt.” Walt Whitman introduced himself in a way that elicited a soft laugh from me, “A cosmic son of Manhattan, restless, fat, horny, eating, drinking, reproducing …”. I admire the complex emotional life of William Butler Yeats: “I see the fingers of the wind intimate, the delicate gestures shattered, I see the petals blown away in droves, O rose, poor lovesick rose!” 

I read poetry but never learned to write it, so readers may find errors in the texts and techniques herein. This is my kind of poetry — a fusion of traditional ancient Chinese poetry, modern Western poetic  forms, and a sense of real events. In my writings, I have also tried to explore and integrate Greek mythology, Chinese folktales, love and affection, and many other themes. 

This book was fortunate to be accepted by a professional publisher, and on the occasion of the publication of this collection of poems, I forgot for a while the mud of my feet in the commercial world and immersed myself in something that really gives me a spark of inspiration. 

Through my writings, it is my desire to share the ecology of different industries, the humanities of different countries, and different perspectives with readers around the world through the language of poetry. More importantly, it is my hope that all those who have contributed to the publication of this book accept and appreciate the criticism of our readers without bias so that we can continue on the path of discovering the value of creativity and imagination.

致读者们 

人类是社会性动物，每个人在社会中一定会被贴上许多标签，这些标签是群体潜意识里通过个体职业、性格和兴趣等要素综合分析形成的固化印象。当我还是个不谙世故的小女孩时，我便痴迷于成天独自待在封闭的房间里阅读各种名著小说，渴望成为一名职业作家。只不过孩童时代的梦想离现实生活赋予我的标签很遥远，它像是最喜爱的那颗水晶球封存在蒙尘的记忆殿堂中。 

直到新型冠状病毒爆发以后我才开始尝试职业写作，旅行禁令和严格的隔离措施让我在很长一段时间内选择透过窗户看外面的风景，闲来无事只能阅读和写诗，如同所有真正的诗人们一样，用诗歌抒发内心的极度苦闷。我读惠特曼、叶芝和华兹华斯等西方大诗人的作品，同时九年义务教育让我能熟练背诵不少中国古代名家文章和唐诗宋词。正如艾米莉·狄金森评价诗歌这种文学体裁：“这渠道最穷的人也能走，不必为通行税伤神，这是何等节俭的车，承载着人的灵魂。”沃尔特·惠特曼自我介绍时让我发出轻笑，“一个宇宙，曼哈顿的儿子，躁动，肥壮，好色，吃着，喝着，生殖着…..”。我欣赏威廉·巴特勒·叶芝复杂的感情生活，“我看见风的手指狎昵，那横遭摧残的娇艳姿色，我看见花瓣被纷纷吹落，玫瑰啊，可怜害相思的玫瑰！”我读诗但从来没有学习过写诗，因此读者们会发现语法和技巧的诸多瑕疵。与其说我写的是诗歌，不如说这只是中国传统古诗词、西方现代诗歌形式和真实事件感悟融合的产物。我一直尝试去探索希腊神话、中国民间故事，爱情和亲情等更多主题。 

本书有幸得到专业出版社的认可，值此诗集发行之际，我暂时忘记了脚踏在商业社会中的泥泞，潜心投入到真正能赋予自己灵感火花的事情中。我希望以微薄之力，通过诗歌这种语言向全世界的读者们分享不同行业的生态、不同国家的人文风情和不同角度的认知。更重要的是，作者和所有为本书出版工作做出贡献的人们将以开放的心态接受和感激读者们的批评指正，以便我们在发现创造力和想象力的价值这条路上能够走的更远。