Voted by a panel of seventy major critics and poets as one of the best contemporary Chinese writers

Lan Lan: Lan Lan is the nom de plume of Hu Lanlan, born in 1967 in Yantai, Shandong Province. Publishing since the age of fourteen, she is considered an influential lyrical poet in contemporary China and is the bestselling author of nine poetry titles.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain: Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in French, English, and Chinese. Her recent work includes Water the Moon (Marick Press, 2010). Co-director of Vif e¿ditions and one of the editors at Cerise Press, she is also a zheng concertist.

Introduction

I Speak to Rivers and Silence - Lyricism in Lan Lan's Poetry 7


Short Lines 17


1. Indeed

Vérité 21
Please Discuss Happiness With Me 23
Inside Eternity... 25
Blue Pill 27
Poets Are Useless 29
Reading History 31
My Pen 33
Stunned 35
Insomnia 37
What Is More Is Silence 39
Train, Train 41
Unfinished Voyage 43


2. a weight and a balance scale

Reason in Everything 49
You Are 51
Man of Few Possessions 53
I Am Other Things 55
Lizard 57
An Ear of Grain 59
Will There Be a Tree 61
Reality 63
Now, Untouchable 65
A Few Grains of Sand 69
Change 73
Standard Law 75


3. Canyon in the Body

Siesta 79
Only... 81
Dusk 83
Nothingness 85
Mother 87
Autumn Begins 89
Lost 91
Wind 93
Concerning Scenery 95
Firefly 97
Ruins of the Great River Village 99
A Shuddering Gust of Wind 101
In My Village 103
In a Small Shop 105
Et cetera... 107
Travel 109
Wild Sunflowers 111
Singer 113


4. Love Letter from Fallen Leaves

Chestnut Tree in the Wind 117
Persimmon Tree 119
A Glance 121
Discussing Life 123
Danger 125
Blind Person 127
Startle 129
You Are Not Here... 131
Nails 133
Your Forest 139
Hawthorn Tree 141
Parasitic Bacterium 143
Lily 145
Rose 147
Four Kinds of Desert Plants 149
Disappear 151
Newlywed 153
Again the Green Sea Lake 155


5. Password in This Night

Dream, Dream... 159
Little 161
To Pessoa 163
In Maestro's Living Room 165
Untitled (I don't love coat, I love body) 167
Now 169
Secret Lover 171
Little Prelude 173
Untitled (without us will this moon night still exist) 175
A Different Mountain 177
Shadow 179
One Thing 181
A Poet's Work 183




About the Author 185