Editor：Andrew Parkin

Selected poets: Chan Tak-kam, Juliette Chan, Chung Wai-man, Louise Ho, Leung Ping-kwan, Laurence Wong, Wong Leung-wo, Woo Kwok-yin, Wu Xubin, Yu Kwang-chung, Yuen Che-hung.

This collection of contemporary Hong Kong poems -- most published here in English for the first time -- reveals the heart of a city on the edge of a dramatic change of identity. Lyrical and poignant, the poems reflect the heightened emotions and apprehensions of the Hong Kong people as China's takeover nears.

Writing in free verse that breaks with traditional Chinese form, the twelve modern poets retains links with the past, sometimes alluding through subject, diction, and imagery to the Chinese poetic tradition. Some of the poets express a longing for China as a homeland, while others draw on Chinese myth and folk-tales to reflect on the universal themes of reincarnation, life and death, and the passage of time. Whether describing the vibrancy of Hong Kong life, examining the effects of the Tiana nmen Square incident, or reflecting on love and society, each poet brings to life some part of the Hong Kong character.

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Content:

Poets and Translators

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Mountain Rain / Yu Kwang-chung 3

Waiting in the Rain / Yu Kwang-chung 4

White Jade Bitter Gourd / Yu Kwang-chung 6

The Kowloon - Canton Railway / Yu Kwang-chung 8

When I Am Dead / Yu Kwang-chung 9

The Mirror / Yu Kwang-chung 10

The Crystal Prison / Yu Kwang-chung 11

A Letter through the Rain / Yu Kwang-chung 13

Once Upon a Candle / Yu Kwang-chung 14

The Umbrellas / Yu Kwang-chung 15

The Pearl Necklace / Yu Kwang-chung 16

Mother, I'm Hungry / Yu Kwang-chung 17

Two Poems on Vincent Van Gogh / Yu Kwang-chung 18

At West Lake / Leung Ping-kwan 22

Seagulls of Kunming: the 1940s and the 1980s / Leung Ping-kwan 24

Mirror Lake / Leung Ping-kwan 26

White Sun / Leung Ping-kwan 27

Cloud Travel / Leung Ping-kwan 28

Journey into the Painting Hua Shan / Leung Ping-kwan 32

Morning in a Foreign Land / Leung Ping-kwan 34

In Fabric Alley / Leung Ping-kwan 36

The Clogs / Leung Ping-kwan 38

Images of Hong Kong / Leung Ping-kwan 39

The Leaf on the Edge / Leung Ping-kwan 41

Distinguished Leaves / Leung Ping-kwan 42

Stainings / Leung Ping-kwan 43

If I Should Die / Woo Kwok-yin 46

Before the Gust Arrives / Woo Kwok-yin 48

Chrysanthemum / Woo Kwok-yin 49

Lest I Should Fall Asleep Before Dawn / Woo Kwok-yin 50

Retreating Landscapes / Yuen Che-hung 54

Grandma is Dead / Yuen Che-hung 55

Unfinished Poems / Yuen Che-hung 58

The River's Rebirth / Yuen Che-hung 59

The Leader Cadre / Yuen Che-hung 60

To My Uncle Who Killed Himself / Yuen Che-hung 61

Quiet Noises / Yuen Che-hung 62

Tai Po Mei / Juliette Chen 64

Face / Juliette Chen 66

Dinner with an Eligible Bachelor / Juliette Chen 68

Night Folk / Juliette Chen 70

The Weather is Gothic / Juliette Chen 71

Spare Parts / Juliette Chen 72

Plaint for a Lost Love / Juliette Chen 73

A Reply / Juliette Chen 75

Journey / Juliette Chen 77

Just Stand There Long Enough / Laurence Wong 80

Discourse from an Immortal / Laurence Wong 81

Gazing at the South / Laurence Wong 82

A Meteorological Prophecy / Laurence Wong 83

Crossing the River / Laurence Wong 84

Autumn Thoughts / Laurence Wong 86

There Was Such a Morning / Laurence Wong 88

Spring / Laurence Wong 89

The Shattered Cliff / Laurence Wong 90

Great Cold / Laurence Wong 91

City / Louise Ho 94

Time's Pummelling / Louise Ho 95

Jet-lagged in Boston / Louise Ho 96

Jade / Louise Ho 97

To Grandfather / Louise Ho 98

Things Pentecostal / Louise Ho 99

Tombed-in / Louise Ho 100

Image / Louise Ho 101

Raw / Louise Ho 102

Prose Poem / Louise Ho 103

Well-spoken Cantonese / Louise Ho 104

New Year's Eve, 1989 / Louise Ho 105

The Sea / Wu Xubin 110

Porcelain Fragments / Chung Wai-man 114

Three Lives / Chung Wai-man 117

The Sunflower's Soliloquy / Chan Tak-kam 124

Hawk / Chan Tak-kam 125

Homecoming / Chan Tak-kam 126

Before Execution / Wong Leung-wo 128

Pomelo Lantern / Wong Leung-wo 130

Peeling the Pomelo / Wong Leung-wo 132

Green Pomelo / Wong Leung-wo 134

The Lone Eye / Ng Mei-kwan 138

The Blood Path / Ng Mei-kwan 140

Calling Spirits Up / Ng Mei-kwan 144