Mirror : Poems by Zhang Zao

This posthumous collection is a detailed, retrospective look at one of the more brilliant poetic minds of the twenty-first century, and includes an introduction by Bai Hua and afterword by Bei Dao.

A dark humor vivifies Zhang Zao's later work as he eroticizes the harrowing: doubt, finality, and then nothingness.

The choice of these poems is retrospective: "Mirror," one of his earliest and best known works starts the collection, while "Lantern Town" was written less than two months before his death. Elegya letter opens and someone saysit's getting coldanother letter opensit is empty, emptyyet heavier than the worlda letter openssomeone says he is singing from a mountain heightsomeone says no, even if the potato was deadthe inertia alive in itwould still grow tiny handsanother letter opensyou sleep like a tangerinebut after peeling off your nudity someone sayshe has touched another youanother letter opensthey are all laughingeverything around explodes into laughtera letter opensclouds and water run wild outsidea letter opensI am chewing a certain darknessanother letter openshigh moon in the skyanother letter opens and shoutsdeath is something realTranslator Fiona Sze-Lorrain co-edited the Manoa anthologies, Sky Lanterns (2012) and On Freedom: Spirit, Art, and State (2013), and is the translator of three previous Jintian titles, including Lan Lan's Canyon in the Body and Wind Says by Bai Hua.