The Belladonna of Sadness

“This poem grew after I watched the 1973 film by Eichii Yamamoto called Belladonna of Sadness, an animated film about a woman who gets raped and gains the magical powers of sorcery, eventually leading to her witch trial and sentence. Supposedly the film draws inspiration from Jules Michelet’s 1862 book ‘La Sorcière,’ a history of witchcraft that looks favorably on witches as healers who go against the oppressive patriarchal powers that govern everything. Essentially, ‘Belladonna’ is a story of revenge. There is a scene in the movie where Jeanne, the protagonist, wakes up after making a deal with the devil and she fully expects to be in hell, and yet she actually finds herself in an idyllic paradise full of flowers, trees, and brooks—all rendered in intensely beautiful and disturbing watercolor stills and animations. In this poem, I wanted to play with the idea of this trope of transformation, witchcraft, and duality—and the feminine desire for revenge after unimaginable suffering.”
—Sally Wen Mao

Thanks to Oliver de la Paz, author of five collections of poetry, including The Boy in the Labyrinth (University of Akron Press, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read a Q&A with Paz about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year.