A phone call from Dalian
Subtitle: selected poetry of Han Dong = Lai zi Dalian de dian hua : selected poetry of Han Dong
By: edited by Nicky Harmon ; translated from Chinese by Nicky Harmon, Maghiel van Crevel, Yu Yan Chen, Naikan Tao, Tony Prince & Michael Day
Contributors: Day, Michael, 1959- translator; Prince, Tony, translator; Tao, Naikan, translator; Chen, Yu Yan, translator; Van Crevel, Maghiel, translator; Harman, Nicky, translator
Series: Jintian series of contemporary literature; Jintian series of contemporary literature
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 106
ISBN-13: 9789629969042; 9789629964924
Description: In a 1989 interview, Han Dong declared that he wrote poetry for nobody, not even himself. He likens the poet to a roofer: "I write poetry for the constitution of poetry, just as a roofer gives no thought to who lives in the house whose roof he is covering--he builds to meet the criteria of what a house is. Poetry is not subordinate to purposes beyond itself: its highest purpose is to be without purpose."
Notes: Poems in English and Chinese on facing pages.