Presented in five thematic sections, this bilingual collection compiles Lan Lan's most characteristic work, showcasing her lyricism, austerity, luminosity, and moral sensibilities. Previous translations have appeared in the anthology Push Open the Window (Copper Canyon Press, 2010) and Another Kind of Nation: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Poetry (Talisman House, 2007).
From Short Lines:
Already too late. Before Iget lost.
I like this ?
madness. The stillest.
You drag along your experience to love me, yet fear
using it to know me.
I'll be a way you reach for the world:
everything is different, so it's
the same.
Born in 1967, Lan Lan grew up in the Shandong countryside, where she recalls, "I went to a school where classrooms were cowsheds and the desks made from sun-dried mud brick. Right behind us were two cows among the peanut vines." At fourteen, Lan Lan published her first sequence of poems, "I Want to Sing," in a renowned literary journal. Today, she is the best-selling author of nine poetry titles and has earned a reputation as both a successful editor and a popular children's fiction writer whose work has been translated into ten languages. Awarded a string of prestigious literary prizes in China between 1996 and 2010, she garnered four of China's most important national literary prizes in 2009. Now living in Beijing, Lan Lan regularly cites as influences Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, and William Blake, and revisits Chinese classical poetry, as well as Western contemporary writers such as Czeslaw Milosz, Wallace Stevens, Juan Ramon Jimenez, and Rene Char.
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 201 mm
Breite: 160 mm
Dicke: 12 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-938890-01-7 (9781938890017)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Lan Lan: Lan Lan is the nom de plume of Hu Lanlan, born in 1967 in Yantai, Shandong Province. Publishing since the age of fourteen, she is considered an influential lyrical poet in contemporary China and is the bestselling author of nine poetry titles.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain: Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in French, English, and Chinese. Her recent work includes Water the Moon (Marick Press, 2010). Co-director of Vif e?ditions and one of the editors at Cerise Press, she is also a zheng concertist.
Introduction
I Speak to Rivers and Silence - Lyricism in Lan Lan's Poetry 7
Short Lines 17
1. Indeed
Verite 21
Please Discuss Happiness With Me 23
Inside Eternity... 25
Blue Pill 27
Poets Are Useless 29
Reading History 31
My Pen 33
Stunned 35
Insomnia 37
What Is More Is Silence 39
Train, Train 41
Unfinished Voyage 43
2. a weight and a balance scale
Reason in Everything 49
You Are 51
Man of Few Possessions 53
I Am Other Things 55
Lizard 57
An Ear of Grain 59
Will There Be a Tree 61
Reality 63
Now, Untouchable 65
A Few Grains of Sand 69
Change 73
Standard Law 75
3. Canyon in the Body
Siesta 79
Only... 81
Dusk 83
Nothingness 85
Mother 87
Autumn Begins 89
Lost 91
Wind 93
Concerning Scenery 95
Firefly 97
Ruins of the Great River Village 99
A Shuddering Gust of Wind 101
In My Village 103
In a Small Shop 105
Et cetera... 107
Travel 109
Wild Sunflowers 111
Singer 113
4. Love Letter from Fallen Leaves
Chestnut Tree in the Wind 117
Persimmon Tree 119
A Glance 121
Discussing Life 123
Danger 125
Blind Person 127
Startle 129
You Are Not Here... 131
Nails 133
Your Forest 139
Hawthorn Tree 141
Parasitic Bacterium 143
Lily 145
Rose 147
Four Kinds of Desert Plants 149
Disappear 151
Newlywed 153
Again the Green Sea Lake 155
5. Password in This Night
Dream, Dream... 159
Little 161
To Pessoa 163
In Maestro's Living Room 165
Untitled (I don't love coat, I love body) 167
Now 169
Secret Lover 171
Little Prelude 173
Untitled (without us will this moon night still exist) 175
A Different Mountain 177
Shadow 179
One Thing 181
A Poet's Work 183
About the Author 185
