The Rose of Time: New and Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition) (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Bei Dao (Author), Eliot Weinberger (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2010 | Series: New Directions Paperbook (Book 1160)

A selection from the lifework of the internationally renowned poet Bei Dao, who is “like reading Chekhov or Turgenev reflected in a porcelain bowl” (The Times [London]).

in the mirror there is always this moment
this moment leads to the door of rebirth
the door opens to the sea
the rose of time
             —Bei Dao

The Rose of Time: New & Selected Poems presents a glowing selection of poetry by contemporary China’s most celebrated poet, Bei Dao. From his earliest work, Bei Dao developed a wholly original poetic language composed of mysterious and arresting images tuned to a distinctive musical key. This collection spans Bei Dao’s entire writing life, from his first book to appear in English, The August Sleepwalker, published a year after the Tiananmen tragedy, to the increasingly interior and complex poems of Landscape Over Zero and Unlock, to new never-before-published work. This bilingual edition also includes a prefatory note by the poet, and a brief afterword by the editor Eliot Weinberger. A must-read book from a seminal poet who has been translated into over thirty languages.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bei Dao’s writing provides ample evidence of the written word’s potential to effect political change. (Andrew Ervin - The Philadelphia Inquirer )

His poems are intense, elegant and impressionistic. (Dwight Garner - The New York Times Arts Beat )

Bei Dao uses words as if he were fighting for his life with them.... [He] has found a way to speak to all of us. (Jonathan Spence - The New York Times Book Review )

About the Author

Bei Dao, born in Beijing in 1949, has traveled and lectured around the world. He has received numerous international awards for his poetry, and is an honorary member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Bei Dao, now a U.S. citizen, is currently Professor of Humanities in the Center for East Asian Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Eliot Weinberger (b. NYC, 1949), is an essayist and translator. He won PEN’s first Gregory Kolovakos Award for promoting Hispanic literature in the US, and he is America’s first literary writer to receive Mexico’s Order of the Aztec Eagle. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Directions; Bilingual Edition edition (January 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811218481
• ISBN-13: 978-0811218481
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #795,811 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars short, neat but intense, February 15, 2011

By 

N. Wong (HONG KONG, HONG KONG Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rose of Time: New and Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition) (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

(3.5 stars)

Bei Dao is one of the most influential living Chinese poets studied by readers from the West. In this edition of The Rose of Time, New Directions Press has kindly provided both the original and translated version of some of the significant works of the poet. Knowing both languages, I have to say the translators have basically done the job to keep the spirit. Yet readers may find the poems quite hard to follow and understand, though they are syntactically neat and clear. The problem of delivery lies in the leap of images present in the original Chinese version. Bei Dao, if I have to categorize, likes to play with images and most of the time his choices seem rather random and surrealistic (and surprisingly, the randomness contributes to the poetics of the works too). I am not sure about the reasons behind this stylistic matter and there is no point to argue so or in a review. But I very much believe that Bei Dao is using images to help him deliver his viewpoints on political or social incidents that he is not allowed to express directly. One of my favorites in this collection is:

Untitled (p.153)

looking back a few times in the poem
night birds singing together
you set smoke drifting free
toward a place where song vanishes

walking into tomorrow beneath an umbrella
you, a wanderer
set out from your own end
what can replace joy

the century's foxes
leap from abyss to abyss
you see how that glorious bridge
disappears at the sky's edge

morning touches
the secret thought of a walnut
above the passion of water
it's the loneliness of cloud walking