Notes of a Blissful Ghost
By Yang Lian
Translated by Brian Holton
2002
160 pages
ISBN 962-7255-25-4
Yang Lian burst on the Chinese poetry scene in the late 1970s as a member of the Today group. The political storms of the last two decades have turned him into a writer in exile.
Yang exploits this condition of exile to probe our human and linguistic predicaments. This leads to a continuous reinvention of the poet's self and his chosen form of expression. In Yang's own words, he is always 'crossing boundaries and scaling walls'.
This volume traces Yang's poetic career from 1982 to 2001. It is the most comprehensive and representative collection of Yang's work to date.
'... the job of translating [Yang Lian] is a Herculean—some might say Sisyphean—task requiring sensitivity, skill and sheer doggedness ... Holton, who has translated Yang's works since 1992, delivers all three, plus a vivid poetic sense of his own.'
—South China Morning Post
'Holton, who has worked closely with Yang, has rightly translated more than "just" meaning: "I continually try to discipline myself against writing elegant open lines where the original is cramped and dense".'
—Pacific Affairs