Xu Zhimo: Selected Poems
Xu Zhimo: Selected Poems
By Xu Zhimo
Edited by Mary M. Y. Fung
Translated by Mary M. Y. Fung and David Lunde
2017
126 pages
ISBN 962-7255-45-1
Xu Zhimo (1897–1931) was the best-known poet of the early period of the New Poetry in China, not only for his beautiful, melodious poetry but also his tempestuous love affairs and tragic death. He championed English Romanticism and the cultivation of the Romantic self. His introducing poems by Thomas Hardy, Keats, and Shelley and their various metrical forms, experimenting with verse forms and fusing them with his expert control of the vernacular language, combining elements of English and classical Chinese, broadening the subject matter and treatment of themes, are lasting contributions to modern Chinese poetry. The fifty poems selected here are characteristic of Xu’s style, displaying his efforts at innovation. This anthology of English translations of Xu’s poems, the first of its kind, published on the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of his birth, is a tribute to the poet and celebrates his important and pioneering position in the development of modern Chinese poetry.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction — 9
Poems of Zhimo
Elegy for Katherine Mansfield — 24
A Grey and Gloomy Life — 26
On Hearing the Chant of Penitential Offering at Tianning Temple in Changzhou — 28
Serves You Right, Beggar! — 31
Cover It with Oil Paper — 32
This Strange World — 34
Sayonara—To a Japanese Maiden — 35
The Poison — 36
Who Knows — 38
Calvary — 40
In Search of a Bright Star — 43
The Signal — 44
The Joy of a Snowflake — 45
This Is a Coward’s World — 46
Untitled — 48
A Song of Dead Leaves — 56
A Night in Florence
Susie — 52
A Night in Florence — 53
Rhymes of the Sea — 56
Let Us Build a Wall — 58
It Is Not Easy to Live These Days — 59
Ding-Dong—Loud and Clear — 60
Late at Night off Dagu Port on March — 61
Plum Blossom and Snow Vie for Spring (Commemorating the May 18 Incident) — 62
Another Experiment — 63
A Pipa Tune in an Alley at Midnight — 64
By Chance — 65
The Marshall (Battle Song I) — 66
Human Beings Transformed to Animals (Battle Song II) — 68
The Last Day — 69
Tiger, Tiger
Cricket — 72
Thomas Hardy — 73
I Don’t Know Which Way the Wind Blows — 75
Life — 76
Who Is to Blame? — 77
By the Side of an Unknown Road (India) — 78
You Are in His Eyes — 79
Second Farewell to Cambridge — 80
Dedication — 82
I Am Waiting for You — 83
The Yellow Oriole — 86
Seasons — 87
In the Mountains — 88
Mount Tai — 89
The Expansive Sea — 90
Roaming in the Clouds
Roaming in the Clouds — 92
Love’s Inspiration—For Hu Shi — 93
In Sickness — 107
The Train Grabbing the Rails — 109
You Go — 111
Notes on Translators — 112
Selected Bibliography — 113
Appendix I: Preface to A Night in Florence — 115
Appendix II: Preface to Tiger, Tiger — 117
Appendix III: Preface to Roaming in the Clouds — 123
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