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 :

欢迎来信，编辑邮箱地址如下：

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 2023, Meifu has turned some of her attention to her own poetry and to poetry from other parts of the world, but continues to meet with Chinese poets periodically, in China and overseas, to explore ways to add new poems to this website. 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 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

MY LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MT. QINLING

• by Nan Shutang


• I hate this mountain because
• it blocks my view, posing
• as the end of the world. Still, it acts
• as a jail gate that keeps away the people and things
• I love to hate but dare not.
• I take it all out on Mt. Qinling,
• so when I hate you, and you, and you, once, twice, thrice,
• I build a mountain of hatred.
• Surely one of Qinling's peaks is the work of my hands.
• Hear the rainless thunder from the heights,
• hear its echoes spreading spite.
• Yet I love this mountain for mysterious reasons —
• the way birds sing, the way peach flowers bloom
• speak my ardent love for the mountain;
• the rugged boulders and hardy grass around my father's grave
• prove the tenacity of my affection,
• which I write down as a list of words,
• arranged by a secret formula
• (the way a pharmacist compounds a prescription),
• and feed them to the spring breeze or autumn wind.
• It is said the mountain grow two centimeters a year.
• Does its rise come partly from the power of my love?
• Nowadays I am more even-tempered,
• with little love or hatred left to burn.
• The mountain seems to treat me the same way,
• listening calmly without happiness or grief.
• Now I can sit comfortably with it
• and strike up a conversation.
• But if the mountain could return my past love and hatred,
• I would use the love to backfill the cavities
• hollowed out by my old rage, so that we might carve
• a gentler terrain, worthy of our trust
• between the pinnacles and the nadirs.


• Translated by Meifu Wang, Michael Soper, Peter Micic & Johan Ramaekers



• 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.

  以上英译诗的汉语原作, 请读： 爱恨秦岭（诗人：南书堂）

  
  

  ><  

  Nan Shutang 南书堂

  b. 1965
  
  Nan Shutang was born in Shangluo, in Shaanxi Province in northwestern China, an ancient starting point of the Silk Road. He has published four poetry collections: Living by the River, The Wanderer, Purple Alfalfa, and Gathering Herbs. His poems have appeared in literary magazines across China. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and works at the Shangluo Bureau of Culture, Press, and Broadcasting.
  
  南书堂，陕西商洛人，中国作家协会会员，陕西省文学院签约作家。出版有《临河而居》《漫步者》《紫苜蓿》《采芝歌》等诗集， 并先后在《诗刊》、《光明日报》、《星星》、《诗潮》、《诗选刊》、《延河》、《飞天》等近百家文学刊物发表大量诗歌作品。出版诗集两部，《临河而居》获陕西首届（2013）年度文学奖诗歌奖。
  
  Nan Shutang's poems can be read here: My Love-Hate Relationship with Mt. Qinling.