Floral Mutter（花的低語 ）

The JINTIAN [今天] series of contemporary literature features new and innovative writing from mainland China and abroad. Titles in the series are edited by Bei Dao, Lydia H. Liu, and Christopher Mattison.

A collaborative venture between Zephyr Press, the Jintian Literary Foundation, and The Chinese University Press, each bilingual title highlights the ever-changing literary culture of China while simultaneously expanding the English language with a wave of new voices in translation.



“This collection of poems is an amazing clash of classical Chinese poetry, the New York School, postmodern cinema, and the inside of a singular heart-head. ‘Don’t worry. I’ve got no evidence here that can harm you,’ Ya Shi says, and it’s true, I’m not harmed by his tentative relationship with nature in his experimental sonnets, I’m not harmed by his dark humor or his fragmentary leaps into surprise. I’m too invested. Ya Shi deserves the ‘cardiac bang bang of literary fame’ he fears, and to Nick Admussen a ‘vast sky’ of praise for bringing these bright poems into a daring, crisp, riveting English. These poems, born anew in translation, are scary fun to read.”

—Jennifer Kronovet, editor, Circumference Books and author of The Wug Test



“Ya Shi’s poetry stands out as something quite unique in Chinese circles, which may be related to his background in mathematics. His lines can be reserved, intricate, and lush; but they can also boldly assert themselves with the brash music of the [Sichuan] topolect. Ya Shi’s writing emphasizes the particularity, artistry, and ‘appetite’ (Ya Shi’s term) of poetic language itself. He roams freely among traditional poetic language, the aesthetics of the Xueyuan [‘Academic’] poetry school, and the slanginess of the Minjian [‘Popular’] school, brewing out of these a linguistic melange, while also balancing the relationship [of language] with theme. By synthesizing these diverse explorations and experiments, Ya Shi displays in his collections of verse a poetic voice that is richly individual.”

—Zhai Yongming, author of The Changing Room