The Silk Dragon II - by Arthur Sze (Paperback)

About the Book

"In The Silk Dragon II, National Book Award-winning poet Arthur Sze presents a sophisticated vision of the vitality, diversity, and power of the Chinese poetic tradition. Traveling over one and a half millennia, Sze guides readers through a luminous history of verse, from the contemplative insights of fifth century poet Tao Qian, through Tang dynasty poets such as Wang Wei and Du Fu, and into subsequent centuries in which lived such innovative artists as Li Qingzhao and Bada Shanren, among many others. Extending the work from the original 2001 volume, The Silk Dragon II then traces classical Chinese poetry's eruption into the free verse of the modern and contemporary eras, introducing groundbreaking poems by the Chinese Modernist master Wen Yiduo, as well as those from major living poets such as Wang Jiaxin, Zhai Yongming, and Xi Chuan. Through this remarkable journey -- deepened by Sze's personal introduction -- we see that the "impossible task" of translation is yet rich with encounter, as both long-lost voices and those still speaking enter the same conversation, with the same vivacity."--

Book Synopsis

*From the 25th U.S. Poet Laureate*

National Book Award-winner and 25th U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze presents a one-of-a-kind anthology that vividly traces Chinese poetry from its centuries-old lyrical traditions up to the present day.

In The Silk Dragon II, National Book Award-winning poet Arthur Sze presents a sophisticated vision of the vitality, diversity, and power of the Chinese poetic tradition. Traveling over one and a half millennia, Sze guides readers through a luminous history of verse, from the contemplative insights of fifth century poet Tao Qian, through Tang dynasty poets such as Wang Wei and Du Fu, and into subsequent centuries in which lived such innovative artists as Li Qingzhao and Bada Shanren, among many others.

Extending the work from the original 2001 volume, The Silk Dragon II then traces classical Chinese poetry's eruption into the free verse of the modern and contemporary eras, introducing groundbreaking poems by the Chinese Modernist master Wen Yiduo, as well as those from major living poets such as Wang Jiaxin, Zhai Yongming, and Xi Chuan. Through this remarkable journey-deepened by Sze's personal introduction--we see that the "impossible task" of translation is yet rich with encounter, as both long-lost voices and those still speaking enter the same conversation, with the same vivacity.

Review Quotes

Praise for Silk Dragon II

"Exhilarating . . . less sequel than elaboration, a widening of its predecessor's lens."-David Ulin, Alta

"A great collection to pick up as a first exploration of Chinese poetry. . . . Allows the reader to glimpse how many changes in Chinese poetry have occurred over time. You can also see the motifs and references that repeat. And [Arthur Sze] has these wonderful introductory essays and notes that are really great for giving you context on these selections and why these poems are important to him."--Anne Ling Kaye, CBC Radio

"Sze, in his clearwater and efficient translations, in his supple introductions and notes, is a brilliant guide to one of the world's greatest poetry traditions. A tradition of clarity and nuance and moonlight."--Jesse Nathan, Poetry Society of America

"In these lucid translations, Sze offers pleasures for all types of readers, those who want another taste of ancient favorites like Du Fu ('The nation is broken, but hills and rivers remain') and Li He ('I will cut off the dragon's feet / and chew the dragon's flesh'), those new to Chinese poetry (his candid account of one poem's tortuous process remains the best introduction to the art of Chinese translation that I know of), and those who admire Sze's own work for its telling specificities, as in Wen Yiduo ('I feed the fire cobwebs, rat droppings, and also the scaly skins of spotted snakes'), and its prismatic finesse, as in Xi Chuan ('The figures acquire the mountains / and waters, just as the mountains acquire the emerald and lapis')."--David Woo, Lit Hub

"A welcome volume to enter our own republic of letters at a fraught time of acerbic mutual misunderstanding in the political realm. Alexis de Tocqueville taught us about democracy. Perhaps the Tang Dynasty can teach us manners within the body politic, if only by instructing us in the art of reflection. This book is a balm to apply to the suppurating wound, self-inflicted and visited on others alike, of permanent discord, as we strive (some of us), impossibly it seems, for comity."--Johnny Payne, Merion West

"By petal, by word, by image Sze reveals the translator's craft: he uncovers the raw spirit and linguistic skill of the poem in Chinese, and then years and a few continents later he reassembles the poem tenderly into another language, another time. The poems are exquisite."--Judges' citation, Western States Book Award for Translation

"These delicate poems, charged with a sense of serenity that seems incredible to modern sensibilities, cast images of an almost mythic world--formal and austere, yet infused with the banked passion of 'red pomegranate wine.'"--Foreword

"Among the most valuable aspects of this sensitively crafted collection is the introduction, in which Sze describes, in fascinating detail, his translation process, from the word clusters he creates for each Chinese ideogram to the finished poem."--Library Journal

"The Silk Dragon II represents a lifetime of thought and reflection; it is a masterpiece of connections drawn between eras, cultures, and languages--not only in translation to English, but through the 'expanding web' of poetry in China, as poets learned from and rebelled against their predecessors. In bringing these works to English, Sze offers a monumental contribution to this legacy."--Action Books

"A vital introduction to Chinese poetry."--Publishers Weekly

"Read a dozen of these poems, and you'll start to notice a deeper meaning: a delicacy of feeling, an intensity of

About the Author

Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems (2021), selected for a 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature Prize; Sight Lines (2019), for which he received the National Book Award; Compass Rose (2014), a Pulitzer Prize finalist; The Ginkgo Light (2009), selected for the PEN Southwest Book Award and the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Book Award; Quipu (2005); The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 (1998), selected for the Balcones Poetry Prize and the Asian American Literary Award; and Archipelago (1995), selected for an American Book Award. He has also published The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry (2024) and edited Chinese Writers on Writing (2010). Another collection, The White Orchard: Selected Interviews, Essays, and Poems, is forthcoming from the Museum of New Mexico Press in spring 2025. A recipient of the 2024 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize, a Lannan Literary Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships, and a Howard Foundation Fellowship, as well as five grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, Sze was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw. A chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2023-2024 Mohr Visiting Poet at Stanford University. His poetry has been translated into fifteen languages, including Chinese, Dutch, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.