Zhang Er's Poetry Available in New Translation

Zhang Er's Poetry Available in New Translation

(Olympia, Wash.)  Evergreen faculty member Zhang Er's recently collected poems were published this summer in a bilingual edition, "So Translating Rivers and Cities," by Zephyr Press. She also gave a reading from the book at the University Bookstore in Seattle on July 27.

"So Translating Rivers and Cities" is a selection of work from Zhang Er's three most recent Chinese manuscripts. Translators on the project included Evergreen faculty members Bill Ransom and Leonard Schwartz, both well-known poets and authors in their own right. "Everywhere in these poems, the image of enchantment becomes luminous fact of enlightenment," writes award-winning poet and professor Donald Revell. "Wisdom proceeds through the enchanted eye into pure mind, finding no obstacle, broaching no impediment. The effect is of a sudden, entirely true transparency."

Zhang Er was one of the featured poets in Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival at Xining, China this August. She was born in Beijing, China and moved to New York City in 1986. Her poetry, non-fiction writing, and essays have appeared in publications in Taiwan, China, the American émigré community and in a number of American journals. She is the author of multiple books in Chinese and in English translation. She has read from her work at international festivals, conferences, reading series and universities in China, France, Portugal, Russia, Peru, Singapore, Hong Kong as well as in the U.S. She currently teaches at Evergreen-Tacoma.

Her new collection is available on Amazon.com or Zephyrpress.org.

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