Autorentext

A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An has published more than twenty books, among which fifteen are poetry collections. The winner of various national awards and prizes, he is also a vice president of the Poetry Institute of China, a vice president of the Shaanxi Writers Association, a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association, a State Council Special Allowance Expert, and the head and executive editor-in-chief of the literary journal Yan River. Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published, either independently or in cooperation with Xisheng Chen, hundreds of pieces of English translations, poems, and essays in over fifty literary journals, such as The Southern Review and AGNI. Xisheng Chen is a Chinese American ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator, and educator. His working history includes adjunct professor at the Departments of English and Social Sciences of Trine University (formerly Tri-State University) in Angola, Indiana. As a translator for four decades, he has published many translations in various fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad.

Klappentext

An English translation of an award-winning collection by Chinese poet Yan An.

Rock Arrangement by Yan An, a prominent contemporary Chinese poet, won the Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, China's highest literary honor, in 2014. Representing China's highest poetic achievements from 2010 to 2013, this poetry collection was translated into English for the first time and was a runner-up for Carnegie Mellon University Press's 2025 Literary Translation Prize.

Akin to eco-poetry in their core themes, characterized by surrealism, mythical elements, and high abstraction, and even abstruseness, these poems integrate regional culture, surrealist poetics, and philosophical reflection. They skillfully employ a variety of vivid rhetorical devices and create contrasts through unconventional combinations of imagery, developing a distinctive poetic and spiritual language. Rock Arrangement is a landmark work in contemporary Chinese poetry that combines intellectual depth with artistic innovation.