by Lian Yang (Author), Brian Holton (Translator)
Riding Pisces brings together a number of hard-to-find and uncollected texts from almost the full extent of Yang Lian's career - from Masks and Crocodiles (Sydney, 1990 - although the translations here are new), from the out-of-print collection Non-Person Singular (London, 1994), from Notes of a Blissful Ghost, published in Hong Kong in 2002, from the Sailor's Home six-handed anthology (Shearsman Books, 2005), and from the as-yet uncollected Dark Blue Verses. For those already familiar with Yang Lian's remarkable long poems, such as Concentric Circles, Where the Sea Stands Still and Yi, this volume offers an invaluable opportunity to fill the gaps in their knowledge.
"Yang Lian is one of the most astonishing poets I've read for years. He has a westernist, modernist sensibility allied with an ancient Chinese, almost shamanistic one. He can both excite and frighten you-like MacDiarmid meets Rilke with Samurai sword drawn!" - W.N. Herbert, The Scotsman