Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry

CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments Note on Translation Map of Taiwan Frontier Taiwan: An Introduction Yang Hua (1906-36) Black Tide (seven selections) / Heartstrings (two selections) / Tawny Cottages / Sad Song of the Female Worker Yang Chichang (1908-94) Rouge and Lips / The Nun / Burning Cheeks / Veins and Butterflies / Autumn Sea / Travelogue / Pale Song / Ruined City / Love Song / Sea of Flowers Qin Zihao (1912-63) Desert Wind / Remembering / Seashells (I) / Gallery / Black Narcissus / Hair / Seashells (II) Ji Xian (1913-) City in Flames / To the Maybe Man / Song of Time No. 2 / My Pagoda-Shaped Plan / Star-Plucking Youth / Dog Howling at the Moon / Seven and Six / Composition in a Window / My Voice and My Existence / Painter's Studio / Wine Drinker / Psychoanalysis of Pipe Smoking / Unfinished Masterpiece / Death of Aphrodite / Type-B Blood / Before Completion, One / Bird Variations Chen Xiuxi (1921-91) Grave Sweeping This Year / Love / Taiwan / My Pen / Maybe It's the Weight of a Poem Zhan Bing (1921-) Affair / May / Planting Rice Sprouts / Liquid Morning / Seven-Colored Time / Liquid Flows Into the Cup of the Heart Zhou Mengdie (1921-) Caltrops / Diary of a Believer / Mendicant / Prisoner / Nine Lines / On the Ferry / Twelfth Month / Sixth Month / Mountain / Polydactylism Huan Fu (1922-) Walking in the Rain / Forest / Carrier Pigeon / Wild Deer / Excuse My Rudeness / Find an Honorific for Mosquitos / Shadow / Incident Lin Hengtai (1924-) Philosopher / Books / Landscape No. 1 / Landscape No. 2 / Traces (1-8) Du Pan Fangge (1927-) Rebirth / Paper People / Beyond the Mulberry Tree / Under the Pomelo Tree / Womb Luo Fu (1928-) Chimney / Death of a Stone Cell (four selections) / Beyond the Fog / Fish / Gold Dragon Temple / The Wound of Time / Sharing a Drink with Li He / Because of the Wind / The Cricket's Song / Metaphysical Game / Mailing a Pair of Shoes / Beijing Sycamores / Funeral for a Poem / I Buy an Umbrella Just to Lose It / Silent Pumpkin Luo Men (1928-) The Four Strings of the Violin / Shrapnel—Tron's Missing Leg / Window / A Wild Horse / Where Light Lives / Running Away / The Old Man Selling Flower Pots / The City—Square Existence / Umbrella / Years of Poetry / Readjustment of Twentieth-Century Space for Existence / Who Could Purchase the Horizon? Rongzi (1928-) To Morning / 80 More Blossoms Fly in Our City / A Green Lotus / Umbrella / When All Living Creatures Go By / The Insect World Xiang Ming (1928-) Dawn at Prosperity Corner / Tumor / Ivy / The Setting Sun on Manila Bay / Possible / Rolling a Steel Hoop Yu Guangzhong (1928-) When I Am Dead / The Double Bed / Green Bristlegrass / If a War Is Raging Afar / Nostalgia / When Night Falls / The Crystal Prison / A Tale on the Hill / Evening / The Spiderwebs / The Pearl Necklace / What Is the Rain Saying Through the Night? / The Langlois Bridge Guan Guan (1929-) Cousin Rat / The Ravenous Prince / Long Street / Talking About the "Emperor Qianlong Tripitaka, Carved on Knot-Free Unblemished Slow-Cured Blocks from Prime Pear Trees Felled in Winter" Shang Qin (1930-) The Anthill / The Ladder / The Maple Tree / The Gloves / A Hun's Afternoon / Giraffe / Overdrawn Footprints / Pigeons / The Dog / The Mosquito / Electric Lock / Moonlight / The Cat Who Walks Through the Wall / Snow / Rooster / Railroad Crossing Zhang Mo (1931-) A Song with No Melody / I Am a Glass of Unlimited Volume / Ode to a Shabby Room / Shaking the Head, Wag the Tail: A Seven-storied Pagoda / The Future: Four Versions Ya Xian (1932-) Umbrella / Shrine of the Village God / Funeral Parlor / The Mountain God / Babylon / Spring Day / The Buckwheat Field / Ship Rats / The Beggar / Red Corn / Salt / Florence / The Monastery / Abyss / The Catholic Nun / The Colonel / Diva / Andante cantabile / Courtyard / Song of the Ordinary / Resurrection Day Xin Yu (1933-) The Song of the Soil / The Zanzibar Lion / A Leopard / Seen at the Shunxing Teahouse / The Speech of Stones Zheng Chouyu (1933-) Life in the Mountains / Mistake / In Dreamland / Watery Lane / Buddhist Chant / Skylight / Stopping at a Minor Station / Still Life / Morning / Afternoon / Pure Clarity / Border Inn / The Temple Bull / Guests of Snow Bai Qiu (1937-) Armchair / Sky / Cry / Weight / Geese / Canary / Vine / The Square / Silent Gecko Ye Weilian (1937-) Fugue / Pastiches from Taiwan Countryside (four selections) / Quest / Traveling in Spring Lin Ling (1938-) After the Show Is Over / The Man Who Knocked at the Outpost / Nonmodernist Lyricism / For Lin Ling / Two or Three Home Repairs in Spring Xiong Hong (1940-) Thinking with Fire / Dark Associations / I'm Already on My Way to You / Jar / Ripples / Life Yang Mu (1940-) News / Footsteps / Flowing River / In the Midnight Cornfield / Screen / The Second Renunciation / Floating Fireflies / Etudes: The Twelve Earthly Branches / Let the Wind Recite / Zeelandia / Solitude / Forbidden Game (1-4) / Someone Asks Me About Justice and Righteousness / Frost at Midnight / For No Reason / The Traveler's Heart: A Variation / The Proposition of Time / A Tale / Solitude, 1910 Zhang Cuo (1943-) Autumn Reminiscence / The Distance of Winter / Words of a Goose Catcher / In Imitation of the Ancients / The Secret Garden Wu Sheng (1944-) Rice Straw / Rainy Season / Preface to Vignettes of My Village / The Land / Animal Spirit Tablet / In the Woods of a Foreign Country / I Won't Discuss It with You / The Worst Thing About Writing Poetry Li Minyong (1947-) Memento of the Deceased / Prisoner of War / Aspiration of Poetry / Tilting Island / Death Report / Reading Poems on a Late-Night Airliner Luo Qing (1948-) The Invisible Man / Heaven's Revenge / The Avenging Ghost / Once More Looking out at the Deep Blue Sea After Looking out at the Deep Blue Sea Many Times Before / Córdoba / I Refuse / Please Just Wink / Quatrain Su Shaolian (1949-) Beast / Peeling a Pear / Photocopier / Mixed Blood / Shadow Burial / Sleep Deeply Shore / That Horse Like Moonlight Jian Zhengzhen (1950-) Secret / On the Great Wall / Memory / Reading a Letter Bai Ling (1951-) Childhood Years, Part I: The 1940s / Spring's Brief Visit to Taipei / Lip Rouge / Kite Ling Yu (1952-) Since You Can't Advance You Can't Retreat Either / Names Vanished from the Map (five selections) / The Family of Acrobats / Freeze-Frame in the Midst of War (two selections) Chen Yizhi (1953-) Taiwan Rains / Broken-down Family Tree / Thinking, Worrying (I) / Whale / An Alzheimer's Kind of Love / Entombed Warrior Du Ye (1953-) Frog / Snowfield / Vermilion Cabinet / A Wish / Universal Love, Not War / Li Bai / The Tilapia in the Sky Chen Li (1954-) The Lover of the Magician's Wife / The Love Song of Buffet the Clown / In a City Alarmed by a Series of Earthquakes / Listening to Winterreise on a Spring Night / The River of Shadows / The Edge of the Island / Microcosmos (ten selections) / Autumn Song / The War Symphony / Formosa, 1661 / Dialogue / Butterfly Air / Tunnel / On the Island / Composition Yang Ze (1954-) Fugue of Violence and Music / Under a Scorching Sun, a Stifling Noon, I Stared / This is the Spring of Cynicism / Rainy Day—Women #12 & 35 / Clear Day—Women #12 & 35 / outside is the snow / Nightly Homecoming / Life Is Not Worth Living / Let Me Be Your DJ Luo Zhicheng (1955-) Father / Darling Letters (five selections) / The Wolf / The Great Rains of '93 / The Bookstore of My Dreams Xiang Yang (1955-) Train Station / My Cares / Seed / Autumn Words / Nine to Five / Uniform / Lesser Fullness of Grain / Great Heat / Waking of Insects / Hoarfrost / Lesser Snow / Great Cold Jiao Tong (1956-) The Story of Her Life / Out of Work / The Demon Platoon Leader / Reading at Night / Martial Law / Eraser / The Frequency I Infringe Upon Xia Yu (1956-) Sweet Revenge / Hibernation / Bronze / Poet's Day / Picnic / The Simple Future Tense / The Hidden Queen and Her Invisible City / Parable / Children (1, 2) / Yarmidiso Language Family / Excuse / Afternoon Tea / Memory / Ode on a Thing / Fauves / Mozart in E-Flat Major / Ensemble Against the Wind / Dancing with My Back to You / Spring Evening / The Mercury That We Raised So Carefully / Reading / Postcard / A Difficult Moral Question / FRICTION. INDESCRIBABLE / The Ripest Rankest Juiciest Summer Ever / Written for Others / Playerless Piano Lin Yu (1957–) My Dream Is Taking a Trip / Spring Sings in My Veins / Name Cards / Numbers / Mr. D / The Idiot / Chair / A Bachelor's Diary Liu Kexiang (1957–) The Lower Reaches / Posthumous Sons / Young Revolutionaries / Hope / Tropical Rain Forest / Going Home / The Street Performer / Delta in the Ocean / Shown Grass / The Central Range of Little Bear Pinocha Sun Weimin (1959–) Delirious / Spring 1985 / The Encounter / Dream / Transfer / Going to Work / Leaving Work / Motorcycle Chen Kehua (1961-) Clown Spirit / This Life / No Children Are Born in This Instant / Ballpoint Pen / Bathroom / On TV After Dinner / Message Board at a Train Station / Butterfly Dream / Sodomy's Necessity / Still Walis Nokan (1961-) Back to the Tribe! / Atayal (War, 1896-1930) Lin Yaode (1962-96) The Terminal / Prefatory Poem / The Lie of a Spring I Tightly Wind / The Concept of "Non" / The Red Chamber Hong Hong (1964-) Zoo City (three selections) / A Drop of Juice Falls / Woman Translating / No War / Suitcase Lost and Found / Someone I Loved / Things Free of Me Xu Huizhi (1966-) Corporeal Form / A Flea Attends the Buddha's Sermon / My Compassionate Buddha / Body in Ruins / A Bowl of Rice / Soon It Will Be Cold / Purple Hare / The Implorer Notes on the Contributors Select Bibliography in English