A Tibetan Grammar

Poetry. Translated from the French by Keith Waldrop. "A TIBETAN GRAMMAR explores language from an almost architectural perspective, using the structure of Tibetan to examine how a language creates categories—and then immediately overflows them. In the attempt to construct a concise map, she deftly demonstrates the inability of language to remain sufficiently static for any cartographical system. Her balance of analytic query, sharp imagery, and radical juxtaposition creates a varied and vivid surface that gives the reader an uncanny sense of experiencing the familiar through foreign means."—Cole Swensen