[It] was Tomas Transtromer who said that poetry was like the notes kids pass back and forth in the classroom, while that history teacher drones away at the podium. We are going to be hearing a lot about China in the next decade, about its economy, its foreign and environmental policies. It's going to be the work of translation that will give glimpses-human glimpses-at what's going on."-Robert Hass, The BelieverForty-nine of China's finest contemporary poets are represented in this luminous bilingual anthology, produced as part of the National Endowment for the Arts' International Literary Exchanges. Profoundly influenced by the Cultural Revolution, the poets' work reflects the turmoil of that time-from the blunt and sharply focused political work of Bai Hua and Yu Jian to the hermetic images and landscapes of the Misty poets. From "Higher Duty" by Shu Ting:On my way home, I stop by the market at Huangjia FerryTo buy a dozen eggs and half a watermelonMiffed that the greengrocer will not cut me a dealI pocket some green onions when he is not lookingI might someday be carrying out my dutiesAs General Secretary of the United NationsDevoting myself completely to world peace. Even so, I did not forgetTo make egg-drop soup with green onions for my son. The poets were selected by Chinese editor Qingping Wang. The project was coordinated in the United States by noted translators Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin." | Push Open the Window by Qingping Wang, Paperback | Indigo Chapters