Carcanet Press - Landscape Over Zero

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Often reported to be on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize for Literature, and recently elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Bei Dao is China’s pre-eminent contemporary poet. The poems in Landscape Over Zero reach new heights of cinematic fusion as he contemplates the fractured landscapes amongst which he has lived since his enforced exile from China in 1989. But now there is a glimmer of possibility that a new home can be gained and love renewed.

Bei Dao

Bei Dao, pen name of Zhao Zhenkai, was born in Beijing in 1949. Hailed as "the soul of post-Mao poetry" (Yunte Huang) and praised for his "intense lyricism" (Pankaj Mishra), Bei Dao is one of contemporary China's most distinguished poets and the cofounder of the landmark underground literary journal Jintian ... read more

David Hinton

David Hinton studied Chinese at Cornell University. His many translations of ancient Chinese poetry have earned wide acclaim for creating compelling English poetry that conveys the texture and density of the originals. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as numerous fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts ... read more

Yanbing Chen

Praise for Bei Dao 'Dao's first book-length poem transports us through the years, countries and memories that followed his 1989 expulsion from China (his poems were recited by students in Tiananmen Square). The restlessness of these 34 cantos, which dart between personal experience and historical moment, creates a vital expression of the exile's condition.'

Maria Crawford, Financial Times
'This beautiful, harrowing, frequently astonishing and unsettling long poem, eleven years in the making, succeeding and deepening a prodigious body of accomplished earlier work, is ample evidence that the Nobel Prize for Bei Dao is surely somewhat overdue.'

Stuart Walton, Hong Kong Review of Books
'A lyrical masterpiece.'

Carol Muske-Dukes
'Bei Dao is among the strongest poetic impressions of my lifetime. To me, his poems are the work of a genius, a genius of juxtaposing, of simplicity, of acceleration, of tunneling through emblem and image.'

Michael Hofmann
'As with stereograms (magic-eye art), if we look at them long enough, a three-dimensional view of Bei Dao's itinerant life in exile comes in and out of focus. From Beijing to West Berlin, Copenhagen to Hong Kong, the narrative thrust of this collection zigzags through his lifetime, while the 34 cantos themselves (in Jeffrey Yang's propulsive translation) are a nebula of worldly experience.'
Jack Hargreaves, China Book Review
'The language of Bei Dao's memoir, seamlessly translated by fellow poet Yang, is elegantly simple and guilelessly accessible....Winter white cabbage, vinyl records, pet rabbits, banned books, and first and last 'I love yous' provide intimate glimpses that 'open up' to reveal extraordinary, immediate testimony of challenges survived in a life intensely lived.'
Booklist of City Gate, Open Up (US edition, published by New Directions) 'This is a nuanced account of China in the era of the Cultural Revolution, seen through one young man's eyes. Since that young man became a poet, it is also beautifully textured, full of the sounds, sights, and scents of a Beijing that is no more.'
Publishers Weekly of City Gate, Open Up (US edition, published by New Directions)

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Landscape Over Zero Bei Dao Translated by David Hinton and Yanbing Chen Imprint: Anvil Press Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (112 pages) (Pub. Sep 1998) 9780856462887 Out of Stock Description Author Reviews Often reported to be on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize for Literature, and recently elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Bei Dao is China’s pre-eminent contemporary poet. The poems in Landscape Over Zero reach new heights of cinematic fusion as he contemplates the fractured landscapes amongst which he has lived since his enforced exile from China in 1989. But now there is a glimmer of possibility that a new home can be gained and love renewed. Bei Dao Bei Dao, pen name of Zhao Zhenkai, was born in Beijing in 1949. Hailed as "the soul of post-Mao poetry" (Yunte Huang) and praised for his "intense lyricism" (Pankaj Mishra), Bei Dao is one of contemporary China's most distinguished poets and the cofounder of the landmark underground literary journal Jintian ... read more David Hinton David Hinton studied Chinese at Cornell University. His many translations of ancient Chinese poetry have earned wide acclaim for creating compelling English poetry that conveys the texture and density of the originals. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as numerous fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts ... read more Yanbing Chen ... read more Praise for Bei Dao 'Dao's first book-length poem transports us through the years, countries and memories that followed his 1989 expulsion from China (his poems were recited by students in Tiananmen Square). The restlessness of these 34 cantos, which dart between personal experience and historical moment, creates a vital expression of the exile's condition.' Maria Crawford, Financial Times 'This beautiful, harrowing, frequently astonishing and unsettling long poem, eleven years in the making, succeeding and deepening a prodigious body of accomplished earlier work, is ample evidence that the Nobel Prize for Bei Dao is surely somewhat overdue.' Stuart Walton, Hong Kong Review of Books 'A lyrical masterpiece.' Carol Muske-Dukes 'Bei Dao is among the strongest poetic impressions of my lifetime. To me, his poems are the work of a genius, a genius of juxtaposing, of simplicity, of acceleration, of tunneling through emblem and image.' Michael Hofmann 'As with stereograms (magic-eye art), if we look at them long enough, a three-dimensional view of Bei Dao's itinerant life in exile comes in and out of focus. From Beijing to West Berlin, Copenhagen to Hong Kong, the narrative thrust of this collection zigzags through his lifetime, while the 34 cantos themselves (in Jeffrey Yang's propulsive translation) are a nebula of worldly experience.' Jack Hargreaves, China Book Review 'The language of Bei Dao's memoir, seamlessly translated by fellow poet Yang, is elegantly simple and guilelessly accessible....Winter white cabbage, vinyl records, pet rabbits, banned books, and first and last 'I love yous' provide intimate glimpses that 'open up' to reveal extraordinary, immediate testimony of challenges survived in a life intensely lived.' Booklist of City Gate, Open Up (US edition, published by New Directions) 'This is a nuanced account of China in the era of the Cultural Revolution, seen through one young man's eyes. Since that young man became a poet, it is also beautifully textured, full of the sounds, sights, and scents of a Beijing that is no more.' Publishers Weekly of City Gate, Open Up (US edition, published by New Directions)	Share this... Quick Links Carcanet Poetry Carcanet Classics Carcanet Fiction Carcanet Film Lives and Letters PN Review Video Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years! The Carcanet Blog We've Moved! read more Books of the Year read more One Little Room: Peter McDonald read more Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati read more Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn read more Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry read more
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Landscape Over Zero

Bei Dao

Translated by David Hinton and Yanbing Chen