Pains (Chinese Poems)
Pains is renowned writer, publisher and editor Zhao Lihong's newest collection of Chinese poetry in translation—a thematically interlinked meditation on the human body, aging, and the complexities of freedom.
In this collection of fifty-one poems, Zhao pulls in his focus and examines the universal in constrained microcosmic units of abstraction. The poet utilizes his decades of influence to pull ahead as a preeminent representative of contemporary Chinese poetry in all of its simplicity, and proves that limitation in itself may be a blessing.
Zhao Lihong, born in Shanghai in 1952, is the director of the China Writers Association, vice-president of the Shanghai Writers Association, the publisher of the monthly Shanghai Literature, editor-in-chief of Shanghai Poets, a bimonthly journal and a guest professor in modern literature and creative writing. He also teaches at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Zhao has published more than 70 works in poetry, prose and report literature, and his works have been translated into English, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian. He was awarded the Smederevo Golden Key in Serbia at the 44th Smederevo Poets' Autumn Festival in October 2013. In 2014, Zhao received the Outstanding Contribution to Shanghai Culture & Arts Award issued by the Shanghai government. He currently resides in Shanghai.
