A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An is the author of more than twenty books, including his most renowned collection, Rock Arrangement, which won The Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China’s most prestigious literary awards. A recipient of numerous national prizes, he serves as Vice President of the Poetry Institute of China, Vice President of the Shaanxi Writers Association, and a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association. He is also Head and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Yan River, one of the oldest and most influential journals in Northwestern China.
In English translation, his poetry book, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen and published by Chax Press, was shortlisted (one of four titles) for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize in 2022, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. These poems are from Yan An’s most famous book, Rock Arrangement. Its English translation will be published by Carnegie Mellon University Press this fall. Till now, 76,000 copies of Rock Arrangement have been sold in China and the book has been printed once in China.
Yan An is from Shaanxi Province, China, and his country of origin is China.
Translators
Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published 160+ pieces of English translations, poems, and essays in more than fifty literary journals. Yan An’s poetry book, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by her and Xisheng Chen was published by Chax Press and shortlisted (one of four titles) for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. Yan An’s poetry collection Rock Arrangement which was co-translated by her and Xisheng Chen was a runner-up for Carnegie Mellon University Press’s 2025 Literary Translation Prize and will be published in fall 2026.
Xisheng Chen is a Chinese American linguist, lexicologist, ESL grammarian, translator, and educator with over four decades of professional translation experience. He was the top scorer in English in the National College Entrance Examination of Jiangsu Province and earned both his BA and MA from Fudan University, Shanghai. He also holds a Mandarin Healthcare Interpreter Certificate from City College of San Francisco. His professional career includes work as a translator for Shanghai Television Station’s Evening English News Program, lecturer at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, and adjunct professor in the Departments of English and Social Sciences at Trine University (formerly Tri-State University) in Angola, Indiana. Over the course of his career, Chen published numerous translations across a wide range of fields in newspapers and academic journals in China and internationally. He currently works at Tesla in Fremont, California and also as a freelance translator for JTG Inc., contributing to translation projects for the United States Department of Justice.
Story of Searching for Spring in the Suburbs
1
The suburbs are desolate
However shortly after I arrive at the mountainside
Pervaded by the scents of the wilderness
Spring comes peach blossoms bloom
Even a clumsy cumbrous bulldozer is approaching
Spring’s peach blossoms are so splendid
And so is the shy bulldozer covered by a piece of red cloth on top
2
Deeply buried under the ground is a city
With steel pipes with bent fittings on the verge of decay
While enshrouded in the bowels of a metropolis mightier and more rigid
Is the earth with rotten pieces like furtive territorial separatists
And sewers separately transporting more mud and turbid water
A pipe coerced by more underground tunnels
And having eaten only too much to almost burst
Is painfully stranded in the suburbs
By a stray bulldozer
3
I am in the suburbs to enjoy the peach blossoms
However the bulldozer I’ve encountered dilapidated
With rusty violence and ferocity
With a driver crouching down in the cab snoozing
Just like an ailing old hen
Has prematurely opened up the old world
Hidden deeper than spring
Hence terminating in a timely manner
My journey to spring and peach blossoms
郊外寻春记
1
远郊是荒芜的
但当我刚刚抵达了充满荒野气息的山坡
春天来了 桃花开了
一台笨手笨脚的推土机也来了
春天的桃花多么灿烂
像害羞一样头蒙红布的推土机多么灿烂
2
大地之下深埋着另一座城市
和它濒临腐朽的拐脖子钢构管道
而另一座更加高大和坚硬的大都市深处
埋藏着大地 它的腐烂的碎块
像秘密的疆域分裂者
下水道在那里分头输送着更多的污泥浊水
被更多的地下巷道裹挟而去的
因为吃得太多而险些撑破的管道
被一台迷路的推土机
疼痛地搁浅在郊外
3
我在郊外是为访问桃花而去的
但偶遇的推土机 它的破旧
锈迹斑斑的粗暴和威猛 蜷曲在驾驶室里
像疾病折磨着的老母鸡般正在打盹的驾驶员
它过早地打开了比春天隐藏得更深的旧世界
及时地终止了 我开向春天
和桃花的行程
________________________________________
Hymn to an Envoy
Under the branch-like lightning bolts and flares
He is trekking
While shouting and yelling
As slightly excited as an upcoming tempest
I comprehend this child
A travel-loving kid
Who has just brought back from afar a bouquet
In rainy and snowy weather earlier than spring
While striking out splashing sparks
As an apprentice at a blacksmith shop
He was composing hymns:
“Spring transports happiness between the sea and the clouds
In summer the stamens and pistils of the stars
Have burned the entire firmament red
The gigantic celestial arc
Resembling the head of a sunflower is drooping
Just like Mother’s belly not only close to life
But also constituting life itself
A bird has flitted through a garden trying to awaken amid the rain
Skimmed between my arms and singing
And flown elsewhere with more hustle and bustle.”
The branched lightning bolts and flashes
Are above the deep dense shades of summer
And in front of him
Oh the kid fond of attractive appearance and solo activities
I comprehend him
His once quietude and affability
Originate from the calming and abating of the gales of life
Indeed he wholeheartedly likes
Real gales
And even a blazing fire resounding through the zenith
At the moment in the real unmanned region
With a face as clearly bright as that of an envoy
Either light or dark in the suburbs
Where thunder reverberates and lightning strikes
He will conceal all his pain in the tempest
使者的赞美诗
在雷电枝形的火光下
他行走着
大喊大叫
与即将来临的暴风雨一样有点兴奋
我了解这孩子
这个爱旅行的孩子
他刚刚从远方带回花束 春天
更早时候一个雨雪天气
他是铁匠铺的学徒
一边打击着飞溅的火星 一边写赞美诗：
“春天在大海和云朵之间运送幸福
而夏天 星星的花蕊烧红了全部苍穹
天空硕大的葵盘下垂着 像母亲的肚皮
不仅接近了生活而且构成了生活本身
一只鸟掠过一座雨水中试图觉醒的花园
掠过我的手臂和歌唱之间
飞往更加热闹的别处。”
雷电枝形的火光
在夏天的浓荫之上
在他的前方
爱美的独来独往的孩子呵
我了解他
他曾经的平静和蔼
来自于对生活狂风的平息
但他真心地喜欢着——
真正的狂风
和哪怕是响彻于天顶的熊熊烈火
使者般清亮的面孔
在雷电照彻的郊外或明或灭
此刻 真正的无人之境
他要把全部的痛苦隐藏在暴风雨中
___________________________________________
Post Office
The pretty tasty fruit has all been moved to the balcony
And so have the berries forever dreamed of by an animal
Called goat from the depths of an old forest
Summer is here so it doesn’t matter
If they are higher or more conspicuous
I only have a melancholy concrete balcony
That I might lose
Nevertheless the sun water
And rebellious gales will come
And so will thunder lightning and meteors
My restless friends are secretly discussing
Another party after the summer
My concrete balcony is at a high place
Whence I look down all those keen on snatch
Those controlled by diseases and busyness
Those stirring up dust to sing with noise
Some are kin others are foes
More are strangers
The balcony fruits summer
As well as our party
Are the things above their heads
As to how the fruits are joyfully consumed
And how the flock of people babble-gabble
And part in discord in the end it doesn’t matter
As it’s only a friends’ party
Only that a saying is very interesting:
“Post office the heart of the world
We are letters sent out by someone
And being sent elsewhere in a hurry.”
邮政局
好样的水果都搬到阳台上
还有你这来自老森林深处
被一种叫做羊的动物
永久梦想的浆果
也搬到阳台上 夏天了
高一点不要紧
显眼一点不要紧
我只有忧郁的水泥阳台
也许还将失去
但是太阳 水和
叛逆的风会来
雷电和流星会来
不安分的朋友们秘议
夏天之后的
另一场聚会
我的水泥阳台在高处
向下看 一切热衷于攫取的人
被疾病和忙碌运作的人
激起尘土与噪音合唱的人
有的是亲人 有的是仇人
更多的是一些陌生人
阳台 果实 夏天
还有我们的一次聚会
是他们头顶上的事物
果实最后被怎样享用殆尽
一群人 七嘴八舌
最后怎样不欢而散都不重要
这只是一次朋友的聚会
只是有一句话挺有意思：
“邮政局，全世界的核心
我们是谁发出的信件
正被匆匆寄往别处。”
___________________________
A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An is the author of more than twenty books, including his most renowned collection, Rock Arrangement, which won The Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China’s most prestigious literary awards. A recipient of numerous national prizes, he serves as Vice President of the Poetry Institute of China, Vice President of the Shaanxi Writers Association, and a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association. He is also Head and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Yan River, one of the oldest and most influential journals in Northwestern China. In English translation, his poetry book, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen and published by Chax Press, was shortlisted (one of four titles) for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize in 2022, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. These poems are from Yan An’s most famous book, Rock Arrangement. It’s English translation will be published by Carnegie Mellon University Press this fall. Till now, 76,000 copies of Rock Arrangement have been sold in China and the book has been printed once in China.
Yan An is from Shaanxi Province, China, and his country of origin is China.
TRANSLATORS
Chen Du is from Shaanxi Province, China, and her country of origin is China.
As a Chinese American, Xisheng Chen lives in California and his country of origin is China.
