21st Century Chinese Poetry

THE JOURNAL OF 21st Century Chinese Poetry 《廿一世纪中国诗歌》is an independent journal committed to showcasing the best of contemporary Chinese poetry. We exist to discover and celebrate poetry and the Chinese poets who write them with the largest possible Anglophone audience.

In the early twentieth century, The May Fourth Movement (1917-1921) launched an era where vernacular Chinese was for the first time accepted as a legitimate poetic voice. This was followed by an outpouring of verse written in 'plain speech' by people from all walks of life in contrast to the classical, elitist poetic forms of imperial China.

A century has now passed since these 'new' poetic voices emerged. Vernacular poetry has continued to blossom in poetry journals and in cyberspace.

The editor and translators at 21st Century Chinese Poetry are committed to translating poets from across China who would otherwise remain virtually unknown to Western audiences.

Please send all enquiries, suggestions and corrections regarding 21st Century Chinese Poetry to Meifu Wang at:

editor@modernchinesepoetry.com.

Founder and Editor
Meifu Wang

A NEW SEASON OF POETRY

From 2019 to 2022, our editor and translator team worked in partnership with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊) to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to our readers. Poetry Journal (Beijing, China）was founded in 1957, with an emphasis on the publication of contemporary Chinese poetry as well as classical poetry by living poets. It is the widest-circulated poetry journal in China.

Circulating more than sixty years, the journal has brought together and introduced a great number of poets, reflecting many of the sweeping changes that the country has witnessed over that period.

YET ANOTHER SEASON OF POETRY

Since summer of 2022, Meifu has turned her focus to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to visit this website and look through the poems we translated over the years,

or read some of Meifu's poems:
Dirt Road
Water Droplets
Sea Crags
To Melville
To Father
Dirge
Reading Baudelaire Into the Night

We are in the process of updating and re-printing the old numbers of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15). Please stay tuned.

Poets, let us sing with a devoted heart because the world depends on it. — Editor, 21st Century Chinese Poetry

POEM OF THE DAY 一天一首诗

EVEN THE BIGGEST SNOW IS ONLY A BLUFF

by Li Hao

Certain things have no means of sustaining themselves,
such as snow, in face of unflinching spring, when we dream
and dream; they eventually waiver and miss their target,
like an empty-headed slippery mudfish
that leaves no trace.
Even the biggest snow is only a bluff.
Not everyone who loves snow laughs
a debased laugh, some may hide a rapier
beneath their whitewashed hilt, but I am furiously sentimental
— never give in to curses or omens,
never have faith in snow, knowing it's only good for covering up.
In a world of dust and ashes, not one snowflake is pure.
No reason for a parade, because, if plucked out from the snow berm,
the snowflakes will only reveal their wretched past.
Big roads blaze into the sky, but trenches choose to lie low.
Some flowers do not burn for fame, unenvious of the bloom on a pile of dung.
Why squawk, as it is not the antidote to loudmouth snarls.
Things that glitter can indeed hide a stain.
So, trust your intuition. The north wind that you have endured for so long
is relentless because of its brutal past.
It whistles a cheery tune, but that may not be its real mood.
No need for vengeance, in time it will be replaced by the easterly,
and the snowflakes will melt to mud regardless of who cries for them.
Parting ways, that is by far the best game plan this winter.

Translated by Meifu Wang, Michael Soper & Johan Ramaekers

First appeared on this website and simultaneously in China via WeChat （微信） by our partner — China's Poetry Journal （诗刊）

Li Hao 李皓

b. 1970

Li Hao was born in City of Dalian, Liaoning Province in northeastern China. He is a member of Chinese Writers' Association.

李皓，中国作家协会会员，辽宁省作家协会全委会委员。