Crossing the Sea: Poems in Exile/Poems in China [Paperback]

Lee Robinson (Editor), Yu Li Ming (Translator), Nino Ricci (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1998

On June 4, 1989, the day of the Tiananmen Square massacre, DuoDuo left China for England, and bore witness to the atrocities he had seen. Since then, he has lived in exile. Crossing the Sea shows the development of his work from the first days of the Cultural Revolution to the clamping down that led to the events of June 1989 and to his exile. It is, without a doubt, the best selection of this important poet's work to appear to date, in any translation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

30 June 1986
Amsterdam's River
At Fifteen
Auspicious Day
Autumn
Bell Sound
Blessing
The Blood Of One Entire Class
Boy Catching Hornets
Characters
The Climb To The View
Crossing The Sea
Dance Partner
Dead, Ten Dead
Departure
Desire
Dusk
Dusk
Fear
Five Years
For The Sake Of
Gallery
Handicraft
Honeyweek
I Remember
I'm Reading
I've Always Delighted In A Shaft Of Light In The Depth Of Night
In England
In This Weather, Weather Is Meaningless
Is As Before
It's
Little Boy
Looking Out From Death
Map
Milestones
Morning
My Uncle
Never Make Dreams
Night
Northern Earth
Northern Sea
Northern Voices
Northrern Nights
Often
One Story Tells His Entire Past
Only One Is Allowed
Poet
Reading Out Loud
The Road To My Father
Sea
September
Silkworm: Textile
Skies Of Winter Nights
Smoking Gun Of Daybreak
Summer
They
This Instant
Throughout This Drunken Land
To The Rival
Together
Walk Into Winter
Walking
War
Watching The Sea
When I Knew The Bell Sound Was Green
When The People Rise Up Out Of The Hard Cheese
Window Fond Of Weeping
Winter Nightwoman: A
Winter Nightwoman: B
Winter Nightwoman: E
Winter Nightwoman: F
Wishful Thinking Is The Master Of Reality
'you Are A People'
Youg Girl's Polka
Youth
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: House Of Anansi (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887845622
• ISBN-13: 978-0887845628
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,755,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cover versions?, October 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Crossing the Sea: Poems in Exile/Poems in China (Paperback)

Any amateur of Duo Duo's poetry will notice at first glance that many of the titles and and even more of the lines of this collection of Duo Duo's poems betray a remarkable resemblance to those in a previous anthology translated by Gregory Lee and John Cayley, "Looking Out From Death" published by Bloomsbury in 1989. A number of translations, in particular that of "I've always delighted in a shaft of light in the depth of night", also resemble Lee's tranlations in The Manhattan Review, translations which antedate Robinson's book. The provenance of translations into English are notoriously difficult to police. However, this book fulfilled the function of making available Duo Duo's poetry in English translation once the Bloomsbury book was out of print...

1.0 out of 5 stars Cover versions?, October 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Crossing the Sea: Poems in Exile/Poems in China (Paperback)

Any amateur of Duo Duo's poetry will notice at first glance that many of the titles and and even more of the lines of this collection of Duo Duo's poems betray a remarkable resemblance to those in a previous anthology translated by Gregory Lee and John Cayley, "Looking Out From Death" published by Bloomsbury in 1989. A number of translations, in particular that of "I've always delighted in a shaft of light in the depth of night", also resemble Lee's tranlations in The Manhattan Review, translations which antedate Robinson's book. The provenance of translations into English are notoriously difficult to police. However, this book fulfilled the function of making available Duo Duo's poetry in English translation once the Bloomsbury book was out of print. Happily, a new collection of Duoduo's poems translated by Gregory Lee, including most of the poems appearing in Robinson's book, but also many of those written by the poet subsequently, has now been published by Zephyr Press under the title "The Boy Who Catches Wasps". Lee's translations have once again given us an immediacy of access to what Kazim Ali in the Electronic Poetry Review (issue number 4 ...) calls Duo's Duo's "brilliant work".