Xi Murong

Xi Murong (Chinese: 席慕容; pinyin: Xí Mùróng; born 1943) is a Taiwanese writer and painter. She is most famous for her poetry, especially the collections Qi li xiang (Seven-li scent) and Wuyuan de qingchun (Unregrettable Youth).

I am like a goldsmith hammering day and night
Just so I can extend pain
Into a gold ornament as thin as a cicada's wing

Quotes

• If you ask me abruptly
  Why write poetry
  Why not do
  Something useful
  Then I won't know
  How to answer you
  I am like a goldsmith hammering day and night
  Just so I can extend pain
  Into a gold ornament as thin as a cicada's wing
  I don't know if working so hard
  To transform sorrows into
  Shimmering words and phrases
  Is also
  Beautifully worthwhile.
  • "Poetry's Value", in Where Books Fall Open: A Reader's Anthology of Wit & Passion (David R. Godine Publisher, 2003), p. 56