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Lines Around China

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Qiu Xiaolong's poems are rooted in classic Chinese landscapes and metaphors, but dwell in contemporary Western culture, where it is understood that one is always alone or lonely. Among the brass, velvet, red armbands, and shining rivers familiar to us from Chinese poetry, Qiu finds homes for images of Don Quixote and Richard Nixon, echoes of Auden and Matthew Arnold; Western odd men out. Perhaps emblematic of Qiu's poems is the line from the poem "Journeys," describing a trip by train: "Here is never where you want to be." Qiu's poems will refresh readers who remain unimpressed by U.S.-born poets who attempt to flavor their work with fashionable "ethnicity." A distinguished poet in his native China, Qiu Xiaolong distinguishes himself in his English-language poems by his ability to observe and synthesize the most telling details of both cultures, which he knows so well. This book shows the intimate side of the well-known mystery writer.