Mirror
This bilingual 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. Zhang Zao left China in 1986 and lived in Germany until his death at 48 in 2010; only about 90 of his poems survive. A dark humor vivifies Zhang Zao's later work as he eroticizes the harrowing: doubt, finality, and then nothingness. The choice of these poems span his short career: "Mirror," one of his earliest and best known works starts the collection, while "Lantern Town" was written less than two months before his death.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in French, English, and Chinese. Her recent work includes The Ruined Elegance, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and named one of Library Journal’s “Best Books of 2015,” and the earlier collections, My Funeral Gondola (2013) and Water the Moon (2010). Co-director of Vif editions and one of the editors at Cerise Press, she has edited or co-edited several collections, including Starry Island: New Writing from Singapore (2014), On Freedom: Spirit, Art, and State (2013), and Sky Lanterns: New Poetry from China (2012). She is also an accomplished performer of the guzheng, a type of Chinese zither, and has given concerts in several countries. Her translation of I Could Almost See the Clouds of Dust, by Yu Xiang (Zephyr 2013) was long-listed for the 2013 PEN Poetry in Translation Award. She has translated two other Zephyr titles: Canyon in the Body, by Lan Lan, and Wind Says, by Bai Hua.
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