Week 7: Pick a Poet #2 - Li-Young Lee

        Li-Young Lee, who was born in Indonesia to Chinese parents writes about in his poem “I Ask My Mother to Sing” the experience his family had when they left/were exiled from China. His maternal grandfather was China’s first republican president, who eventually tried to become emperor, and his father was the personal physician to Ma Zedong both had to leave China, by which Lee never got to experience his heritage, nor visit his family’s homeland.

        Although Lee did not grow up in China, nor has he visited, as he writes “I’ve never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,” (line 5) he indicates that China, his heritage, has still impacted his life. It is indicated that he learned about China and his origins when his mother and grandmother sang to him about the water lilies, for example. 

    The title of this poem implies that Lee always enjoyed hearing his mother and grandmother sing about his heritage, and how he wanted them to do it more often because it brought him joy. 

        The tone of this poem shifts at the end, by which the poem at the beginning till the last stanza has a joyful tone, but ends with a sad one. Throughout the poem, Lee writes about the joy he felt while hearing his mother and grandmother sing, as well as, how they loved to sing to him. However, the poem ends with his grandmother and mother crying, indicating that although it brought them joy talking about their origin, it also makes them sad, possibly because they were forced to leave. 

        Although I do not relate to this poem on a personal level, I have seen how many children, especially at Donna Klein, have been impacted by their heritage parent’s origin even if they were not born there. It is most common at Donna Klein with people whose parents are from Israel, by which they are heavily influenced by and immersed in Israeli culture.