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) opened the door for vernacular Chinese to be 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.

21st Century Chinese Poetry aims to carry that tradition further: translating poets from across China for readers who would otherwise never encounter them.

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 TASTE OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE POETRY

From 2012 to 2015, our team worked with a group of Chinese poets in China to introduce contemporary Chinese poetry to the wider world. We translated the works of 66 contemporary Chinese poets into English and broadcast them on this website and in print (ISSN 2166-3688).

From 2018 to 2022, we further collaborated with China's Poetry Journal (诗刊) to bring a selection of their monthly publication to world-wide 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.

WHERE THINGS STAND NOW

For a decade, this website has been a labour of love of the editor, out of devotion to poetry and poets, to bring contemporary Chinese poetry to English-speaking readers.

Since summer of 2023, Meifu has turned her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world. Please continue to explore the poems translated here over the years. Meifu is also gradually updating the earlier issues of 21st Century Chinese Poetry (No.1 - No. 15) and adding them to Poems "from Other Journals". Meifu also continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website.

You can read some of Meifu's poems here: Go to Meifu's Poems

POEM OF THE DAY     一天一首诗

VESPERS

• by Bo Hua


• The afternoons were way too long
• in prepubescent Europe —
• was that the era when vespers came to be?
• Doomsday authors, writers of death,
• I hope none of you will be there.
• Mr. Zongdai*, I have been thinking...
• about the day on the 1st of June, 1924:
• were you there, repenting your zealous youth?
• In the warm glow of the evening stars, fit for atonement,
• I say my prayers with gratitude.
• Wind and fire, terrestrial and pelagic forces, surge and subside.
• How do shrimps die? How do ants die?
• Life is an off-chance, as rare as a blind turtle from the deep sea stumbling upon driftwood,
• but how brief the span between birth and death —
• after breakfast comes lunch, and soon it will be supper again.
• Pondering the reason for it, evensong... ...
• thinking about how to be, as Goethe put it,
• unfathomable in old age,
• do we, must we, never forget, not for a minute,
• those who dogged us?
• *Translator’s note: Liang Zongdai (1903–1983) was a Chinese poet and translator. He was one of the most loved poets who wrote in free verse in the early 20th Century.


• Translated by Meifu Wang & Guy Hibbert



• This poem was originally written in Chinese and published in Poetry Journal (Beijing, China); its English translation first appeared on this website and simultaneously in China via WeChat (微信).

  We encourage you to read this poem as an exercise of slow reading.

  
  
  

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  Bo Hua 柏桦

  b. 1956
  
  Bo Hua, poet and scholar, was born in Chongqing, western China. He is a professor of Chinese Language and Literature in Southwest Jiaotong University (Chengdu, Sichuan Province). He has published several poetry books, including The Wind Says, In Qing Dynasty, and The Revolution needs Poetry and Knowledge, among others. He has won several poetry prizes in China.
  
  柏桦，1956年生于重庆。现为西南交通大学人文学院中文系教授。出版诗集及学术著作多种。最新出版的诗集有《风在说》（英语诗集）、《在清朝》（法语诗集）、《为你消得万古愁》、《革命要诗与学问》、《水绘仙侣：冒辟疆与董小宛——1642-1651》等，随笔集《蜡灯红》《白小集》。曾获安高（Anne Kao）诗歌奖、柔刚诗歌奖、羊城晚报“花地文学奖”、第九届四川文学奖、首届东吴文学奖等奖项。
  
  Bo Hua's poem can be read here. Read Vespers.