Nvwa Mends The Sky
Heaven of all heavens,
god of all Gods
When Buzhou1 split to a thousand pieces,
begging the sky to fall,
flaming its trees and flooding its valleys,
Mankind’s weeping was merely a rhyme.
Who am I to bear the pain, caused
by thine nasty, gaunt anger.
Petulant child, who canst thus seize thine anguish
leads to pain.
When I sat by Ruhe2, molding and malleating
did I beat
the weight of my heart,
in each replication
into thee?
Who am I to bear the pain,
now that I am praised
as the holy mother,
Disguised
in beautiful sacrifice.
As I gathered stones and mystical leaves
I melted them into a slurry.
And used the smelted rocks
to paste over the ripped firmament.
I chopped the four feet off a giant tortoise,
and used them as the pillars
to heaven.
I slayed thy great black dragon,
slayed reeds and grasses and
burned them to ash. I stopped
streams screaming in
all directions alive.
Then, the sky was mended and the earth was even.
The waters had stopped. And I am once again the holy mother.
The creator.
Heaven of all heavens,
God of all gods.
When you created me,
Who were thou to sacrifice?
When I sat by Ruhe, molding and malleating
I felt nothing but loneliness,
but that loneliness in vain.
I shaped until my fingers ached,
I made ren3 so I can feel
like maybe,
I am one.
so how do I bear the pain?
when I am mother only because
I made thee
My heart aches, but a voice rings:
“But saviors aren’t selfish,
Saviors sacrifice”
For that I know the calamity
Tilted the sky,
From now on the sun and moon
And all stars and light
Will naturally return
to where I lay.
The earth was tilted,
Therefore all rivers,
Will naturally flow
To where I will be.
1. Buzhou – the mountain split by Zhurong and Gonggong in their battle that broke the sky
2. Ruhe – the river where Nvwa shaped humans using mud
3. Ren – Chinese character for ‘people’ or human. The name Nvwa gave the figures she created
Author’s Statement:
My creative retelling of “Nvwa Mends the Sky” reimagines one of Chinese mythology’s most well-known origin figures through a more intimate and emotionally complex lens. While the traditional folktale frames Nvwa as an unwaveringly benevolent mother-goddess figure who restores the order of the world after male-driven destruction, my poem aims to complicate that archetype. Rather than embodying pure selflessness, Nvwa in the retelling experiences resentment, loneliness, longing, and a desperate desire for understanding. These are feelings that are often erased in mythic portrayals of femininity strength. Therefore, this reframing addresses with my goal of interrogating the cultural expectation that female divinity is synonymous with selfless sacrifice, an expectation that is inherently objectifying perspective of women.
Drawing from Harris Mirkin’s critique of women being portrayed as passive supporters of male action, I want to resist the narrative pattern in which female figures’ entire existence is to restore order and “clean up” the chaos caused by men. To do this, I wanted to write the poem in Nvwa’s perspective. Chinese mythologies are often written in an omniscient, third person perspective. In my poem, however, Nvwa’s voice is heard directly. Through her voice, I channeled the vulnerabilities and nuance of emotions one might feel when being so selfless and powerful. Moreover, Nvwa’s voice directly challenges subordinate expectations. She calls the Zhurong and Gonggong ‘petulant’ and refers to their temperament as ‘nasty’, rejecting any obligation to bear pain on their behalf. Instead, her genuine and inescapable feeling of suffering for the ren is a demonstration of her empathetic strength and is also driven by her selfish desires. Moreover, her labor, gathering of stones, melting metals, slaying beasts, is not framed as a natural maternal duty but as a burden created by her own contradictions. This added nuance in Nvwa’s intention of being the savior repositions her not as an idealized supportive, selfless mother but as a subject with agency, frustration, and internal conflict, all doing so without negating any of the powerful things she’s done.
Furthermore, I tried to preserve the binary oppositions in the original myth through the diction in the poem. Binary opposition is common in mythtales, as highlighted by Alan Dundes’ analysis of mythic archetypes and their reliance on oppositional pairs such as order/chaos and male/female. I believe this is an important aspect to preserving the mythic property of the story. Traditionally, Nvwa restores order after male-driven chaos; in my version, the juxtaposition of chaos and Nvwa’s order and composure still exists. The repetitive juxtaposition of ‘I’ against the external tragedy constructs the oppposition of Nvwa and her environment. I purposefully did not change the essence of the story, as I don’t think the issue of the opposition can be resolved by changing the result or invalidating the heroic property of the mother, but to reveal its nuance and subleties. Therefore, binary is still present, but Nvwa becomes aware of her role within it.
Since this is a retelling of a narrative story, my poem also leans towards a narration instead of a purely lyrical one. Thus, I chose to write a free-verse poem with no fixed structure or rhyme scheme. I have taken much inspiration from John Keats’ poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Like Keats, I employed direct address to create a lyrical conversation between Nvwa and the divine order. In Keats’ poem, he begins by addressing the Urn: “Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness” (Keats). Taking inspiration from this method, I began my poem by addressing elusive divine figures, thereby revealing Nvwa’s state of confusion and internal turmoil. Keats’ layered stanzas and stream of consciousness flow helped shape the repetitive questioning that organizes my poem: with each return to “Who am I to bear the pain”, the poem echoes the repeated reframing of the same thought in Nvwa’s mind, but each time with slightly different emotions and revealing different information, eventually revealing the truth. This format allowed me to elevate the poem’s tone while preserving the introspective and confessional quality that distinguishes my retelling.
Ultimately, my retelling of “Nvwa Mends the Heavens” uses Nvwa’s archetype as a foundation to reflect on the wider understanding of the ‘mother’ in mythtales. Nvwa is no longer a distant and inherently reductive symbol of motherly perfection, but as a real being who feels and wrestles with the cost of creation and sacrifice, thereby resisting the idealized feminine archetype.
Works Cited
Dundes, Alan. “Binary Opposition in Myth: The Propp/Levi-Strauss Debate in Retrospect.” Western Folklore, vol. 56, no. 1, 1997, p. 39, https://doi.org/10.2307/1500385.
Hamilton, Mae. “Nuwa – Mythopedia.” Mythopedia, 2022, mythopedia.com/topics/nuwa/.
Keats, John. “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Poetry Foundation, 1819, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn.
Mirkin, Harris. “The Passive Female the Theory of Patriarchy.” American Studies, vol. 25, no. 2, 1984, pp. 39–57, www.jstor.org/stable/40641862.
