I, Snow Leopard

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Translated from the Chinese by Frank Stewart. Preface by Barry Lopez. Speaking in the voice of the endangered Snow Leopard, poet Jidi Majia conjures a mysterious, magnificent creature with a message about the consequences of unchecked violence toward animals—and equally about the violence that threatens the heart of the human species. He evokes a dramatic presence of Snow Leopard—the smoke-gray fur chased with a pattern of dark rosettes "spun from limitless space"; the long, thick tail for balance as it bounds across a cliff face; the pale green stare—an animal possessing both metaphorical weight and biological authority.

"I, SNOW LEOPARD is both a lyric and an elegy. It is easy to imagine its lines being loudly hailed in whatever country the poem finds itself in. It's publication comes at a time when people everywhere have begun to wonder what a voice like this, suppressed for centuries, wishes to say now, in this moment when the Snow Leopard's human brothers and sisters find themselves side by side with him. Imperiled."—Barry Lopez