Author(s): Ouyang Yu

Poetry

This is a wonderful eclectic collection of the work of known and unknown contemporary Chinese poets which marks a sea change in the form. Lyrical, political, and yet down-to-earth, this new poetry exhibits a liberating, existential dimension previously constricted by propoganda and self-censorship. The rise of women poets is a further sign of this change. Take Le Ye's confident and assured words - like her free-ranging ducks - "believing only in the poetry of life", which lends a profound voice to a profound change. Ouyang Yu's method of "direct translation" serves this new freedom perfectly, rendering immediacy with supreme intimacy in a brief stretching of wings.