{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374612757?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0374612757","authors":["Li Qingzhao"],"book_id":"9780374612757","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-magpie-at-night-9780374612757","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780374612757.jpg?v=0ea493f322f1b52f","description":"A luminous new translation of the greatest woman poet in Chinese history, highlighting Li Qingzhao's iconoclastic verse and showcasing her visionary portrait of the inner workings of the artist’s mind. The Magpie at Night is a lyrical and searching portrait of the inner life of Li Qingzhao, one of the greatest poets in Chinese literary history. These spare and arresting poems evoke with rare immediacy the quiet and haunting beauty of country life during the Song dynasty; the unseen, restive labor of the poet; and Li Qingzhao’s bracing and complex take on what it means to create art as a woman in the shadow of exile, war, imprisonment, and an unwelcoming literary establishment. In Wendy Chen’s splendid new translation, each of Li Qingzhao’s ci —lyrics that were originally set to music—is as sharp and fresh as the edge of a new spring leaf. These richly textured bolts of melody tell a story that will resonate with scholars eager to restore this iconic figure to the canon of classical Chinese poetry, as well as with contemporary readers who will relate to the strikingly modern mode in which she delivers her wry, unsentimental, and bracing thoughts on art and posterity.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780374612757","publication_date":"20250225","publisher":"Farrar Straus & Giroux","slug":"the-magpie-at-night","subtitle":"The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao (1084-1151)","title":"The Magpie at Night"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POE009010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Chinese Poetry","score":0.8485,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE005060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.7973,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature Poetry","score":0.7872,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POE009010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Chinese Poetry","score":0.8485,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE005060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.7973,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Nature Poetry","score":0.7872,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"POE008000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Ancient & Classical Poetry","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POE009010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Chinese Poetry","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Chinese Poetry","score":0.8485,"slug":"chinese-poetry"},{"label":"Asian American Poetry","score":0.7973,"slug":"asian-american-poetry"},{"label":"Nature Poetry","score":0.7872,"slug":"nature-poetry"}],"reader_fit":["Scholars of classical Chinese poetry and Li Qingzhao","Good for readers interested in women artists and the inner life of creating"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Arthur Sze"],"book_id":"9781556597077","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781556597077.jpg?v=bac55ad47fae0ab2","score":0.7306,"title":"The Silk Dragon II","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781556597077"},{"authors":["Li-Young Lee"],"book_id":"9780393357875","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393357875.jpg?v=1283b945c18084f7","score":0.7237,"title":"The Undressing","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393357875"},{"authors":["Shen Tao"],"book_id":"9781250406811","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250406811.jpg?v=e33aa00a70ac6ea3","score":0.7203,"title":"The Poet Empress","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250406811"},{"authors":["Li He"],"book_id":"9789629966607","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9789629966607.jpg?v=c081f432b08e50e0","score":0.713,"title":"The Collected Poems of Li He","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9789629966607"},{"authors":["Timothy Billings"],"book_id":"9781531508357","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781531508357.jpg?v=85b42bb2c3647064","score":0.7114,"title":"Twenty-nine Goodbyes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781531508357"},{"authors":["Vikram Seth"],"book_id":"9780060950248","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060950248.jpg?v=16ddce2d078fc94f","score":0.7091,"title":"Three Chinese Poets","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060950248"},{"authors":["Michael A. 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Fong"],"book_id":"9780824831868","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780824831868.jpg?v=136f6defccb90da9","score":0.7067,"title":"Herself an Author","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780824831868"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:chinese poetry"],"label":"Poetry","score":0.1898,"slug":"poetry"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:translated literature"],"label":"Literature","score":0.057,"slug":"literature"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:nature"],"label":"Nature","score":0.0486,"slug":"nature"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:contemporary poetry"],"label":"Contemporary","score":0.0335,"slug":"contemporary"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Country life in the Song dynasty, Women creating art amid exile and war, The artist’s labor and legacy.","Pacing: reflective, voice-and-character forward.","Themes: Poetry, Literature, Nature."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"reflective","reader_fit":["Scholars of classical Chinese poetry and Li Qingzhao","Readers interested in women artists and the inner life of creating"],"themes":["Country life in the Song dynasty","Women creating art amid exile and war","The artist’s labor and legacy"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":2,"goodreads_ratings_count":73,"goodreads_reviews_count":21,"quality_score":0.8721}}