Overview

This anthology of modern Chinese poetry takes you on a breathtaking journey along China's Yellow and Yangtze Rivers-the nation's vital arteries and ancient dragon symbols-from their origin in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to Bohai and East China Sea. Along the way, you will meet poets from the riverbanks, including major figures like Bei Dao, Jidimajia, Xi Chuan, Yu Jian, Zhai Yongming, Mo Fei, Huang Fan, and exciting new voices from Tibet, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Sichuan, and the river deltas. In their work, these poets sing their sorrows and joys, sharing their profound passion for life. By the journey's end, you will understand why this civilization has endured as long as the rivers, stood as tall as the Himalayas, and created poetry as beautiful as a painting. Translator Wang Ping was born in Shanghai, graduated from Beijing University before moving to the United States in 1985, and earned her PhD in Comparative Literature from NYU. In 1988, she began writing and translating poetry with Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Ron Padgett, Ann Waldman, Lewis Warsh, and other American poets. She is the author of fifteen award-winning books of poetry, prose, and translation. Since 1998, she has traveled along China's dragon rivers, meeting local poets, translating their work, and photographing the water and land. The poems and photographs in this anthology are a living history of China, captured over these transformative years. The introduction is co-authored by Gary Snyder and Wang Ping. Paperback: ""Affordable Black & White Edition. All photographs and illustrations are presented in striking monochrome.""

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9781970902020

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Reviews

Yellow River poems, Yangtze poems-rising from the roof of the world to all seas-flow into English in Wind Crossing Grasses: Poems from China's Dragon Rivers. Wang Ping's translation breathes two great rivers alive, along with their mountains, watersheds and poets. Bill Porter--Red Pine Wang Ping's anthology from China's Dragon Rivers (the Yellow and Yangtze) reveals a vibrant poetry landscape where the wind is constant and rivers run wild, as seen in the work of the Inner Mongolian poet Enkehada: ""Wind O wind, I asked you to run in all directions / But you picked up a stone, and came home alone / Because the old home is gone. Paul Hoover, author of O, and Green: New and Selected Poems

Author Information

Ping Wang was born in Shanghai, graduated from Beijing University in 1984, and received her PhD in comparative literature from NYU in 1999. She is the author of 15 award-winning books of poetry, translation, and prose, including The River Within (MadHat, 2023), My Name Is Immigrant (Hanging Loose, 2021), Life of Miracles along the Yangtze and Mississippi (University of Georgia, 2018), Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China (Anchorage, 2001), New Generation: Poems from China Today (Hanging Loose Press, 2000), Flashcards: Poems by Yu Jian (Zephyr, 2010), The Last Community Virgin (Coffee House Press, 2007), Foreign Devil (Coffee House Press, 1999), and American Visa (Coffee House Press, 1997). Her work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, BBC, The Moth, and others. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the NEA, the Bush Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, AWP, and the Minnesota Book Awards, among others. She is the founder and director of the Kinship of Rivers project and Kinship Poetry Press. She's a Professor Emerita of Poetry and Creative Writing at Macalester College. Gary Snyder's poetry won the Pulitzer Prize. He's the founder of Deep Ecology and Literary Environment. He's the author of over 20 books of poetry and essays. Bei Dao is the founder of China's Misty School Poetry, editor of Today, author of over 15 books of poetry and essays. He was nominated for Nobel Prize three times.

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