Author: Stuart Lyons CBE
In the ten years between his arrival in Cambridge in 1921 and his untimely death in an air crash near Jinan, Xu Zhimo transformed Chinese poetry. His poem 'Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again' is recited today in schools across China, creating a cultural link with Cambridge that brings tens of thousands of visitors to his Memorial Garden at King's College. Yet in the English-speaking world, his work is barely known.
Published to mark the 100th anniversary of his admission to King's College, and with an introduction detailing the poet's life and friendships, Xu Zhimo in Cambridge contains 24 poems in Xu's original Chinese, with Pinyin transliteration and English verse translations. Drawing on archival material, the book highlights the Romantic influences on Xu's poetry and illuminates his emerging, though tragically short-lived, literary talents.
Includes Stuart Lyons' verse translation of 'Wild West Cambridge at Dusk', the winner of the 2020 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation.