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Dec 22, 2024 | 
tricycle.org | Bei Dao
“As a poet, I am always lost,” poet Bei Dao once said. Born in Beijing in 1949 just two months before the official establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the poet has witnessed many cycles of political tumult and dislocation in his lifetime, culminating in his own exile from and eventual return to his homeland.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
time.com | Rebecca Schneid |Bei Dao
These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. By Rebecca SchneidNovember 13, 2024 8:08 AM ESTA legend in Chinese poetry and contemporary writing, Bei Dao (the pen name for Zhao Zhenkai) returns to poetry after almost 15 years with Sidetracks, translated by Jeffrey Yang.
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May 23, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Bei Dao
About this Poet Bei Dao is the nom de plume of Zhao Zhenkai, widely considered one of China’s most important contemporary authors. His poems have been translated into more than 30 languages. In English he is represented by numerous collections of poetry, fiction, and essays, including Sidetracks (2024), The Rose... More About this Poet
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May 14, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Bei Dao
the Cold War just ended a lone sun in the belly of the flying bird white sails drift into an alternate river of time all languages circulate against the state of enslavement my identity suspect exile is crossing the void of a journey without a destination—my life intoxicated—tram gently rocks through the center of Vienna whisky bottle polished off in a room in Stockholm I make ghostly faces in the mirror a South African poet a French poet and I belt out “The Internationale” on Osborne Street...
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May 14, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Philip Metres |Bei Dao |Richard Blanco
Susan L. Leary. Trio House, $18 trade paper (94p) ISBN 978-1-949487-23-7In this moving debut, Leary meditates on the spaces the dead leave behind, offering an elegiac exploration of sibling bonds through the story of a brother lost too young to an overdose in jail.
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May 14, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Bei Dao |Virginia Konchan
By Bei Dao Sidetracks by the revered Chinese poet Bei Dao, translated by Jeffrey Yang, comprises one long poem in 34 cantos tracing the poet’s time as a Young Pioneer in Beijing and his labor during the Cultural Revolution, through his years of exile living in six countries.
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May 10, 2024 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Bei Dao
the eyes of the daughters and sons of the river are shiningwilderness dazzling sunlight polishes the surface of the lakeremembrances and bullets share this centurymail trucks tumble along into the hour of lamplightprisoners dance in concentric circles of moonlightanxious stones...
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
nybooks.com | Jeffrey Yang |Bei Dao
about Hong Kong I know nothing carrying an underground book for the trip land at Kai Tak Airport coral reef shimmers strangers look for the coordinates of lights the skyline’s narrative pushes toward climax frogs hop inside the gut ferryboat “Transition in Transition” Poetry Festival no audience poets listen to each other in rapt attention Shang Qin and I eat a late-night meal together draw little figures on the fogged windows midnight breathes beneath our feet from a small town in Northern...
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Sep 12, 2023 | 
theparisreview.org | Bei Dao |Jeffrey Yang
James Baldwin in Hyde Park, London. Photograph by Allan Warren, The Paris Review No. 129. This interview was conducted in the two places dearest to James Baldwin’s struggle as a writer. We met first in Paris, where he spent the first nine years of a burgeoning career and wrote his first two novels, Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room, along with his best-known collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son.
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Aug 2, 2023 | 
poetryfoundation.org | Bei Dao
Translated by David Hinton a sower walks into the great hall it's war out there, he says and you awash in emptiness you've sworn off your duty to sound the alarm I've come in the name of fields it's war out there I walk out from that great hall all four directions a boundless harvest scene I start planning for war rehearsing death and the crops I burn send up the wolf-smoke of warning fires but something haunts me furiously: he's sowing seed across marble floors "Sower" by Bei Dao, from Forms...
