Rouge
BY Yang Zi
(Haifeng, 2007)

In “Desolation,” for instance, he muses with nostalgia about the moon, a symbolic image that recurs in Chinese classical and contemporary poetry, before punctuating at a timely fashion with a sharp irony, “I still don’t know book is book, life is life” —

Witness to the destruction of nature, common good and values in the so-called modern China today, Yang Zi’s strong critical voice comes across as blatantly transparent when he pinpoints money, greed and desire for power, social validation or fame as prevalent roots of evil. Take a look at one of his title poems, “Rouge”:

Yang Zi’s poems do not assume elitism, nor morality. Unafraid to doubt, or even condemn angrily and without reserve, they contain an attractive spontaneity and measure. Surrealist landscapes provide a background for many of the narratives in his work. In an interview with one of his three translators, Melissa Tuckey, he shares openly, “I’m always unleashing anger.” However, his anger about polluted urban landscapes and corrupted mankind, for instance, always transforms to something positive and discreet, even though he might remain pessimistic about his present surroundings and what may befall them. In their flare and darkness, his harrowing and Surrealist imageries may “threaten,” but their truth never alienates itself from poetic beauty and music. Ye Chun, another of his translators, aptly notes, “He writes passionately and beautifully about the ugly and grotesque of contemporary urban life. There’s always an urgency in his poems which is artfully combined with a wild imagination. His voice is often powerful and haunting, and I think it captures a prevalent mood of today’s China.”

This sampling of four poems — “Desolation,” “I Hear Someone Calling My Name in the Air,” “Night Clouds” and “Rouge” — accompanied by their English translations in Cerise Press, were written between 1999 and 2003. They are now compiled in the revised edition of Yang Zi’s poetry collection, Rouge (Haifeng, 2007).

— Fiona Sze-Lorrain