Tower Built Downwards

Yang Lian was one of the original Misty Poets who reacted against the strictures of the Cultural Revolution. Born in Switzerland, the son of a diplomat, he grew up in Beijing and began writing when he was sent to the countryside in the 1970s. On his return he joined the influential literary magazine Jintian (Today). His work was criticised in China in 1983 and formally banned in 1989 when he organised memorial services for the dead of Tiananmen while in New Zealand. He was a Chinese poet in exile from 1989 to 1995, finally settling in London in 1997, also living for some periods in Berlin. Translations of his poetry include five collections with Bloodaxe, Where the Sea Stands Still (1999), Concentric Circles (2005), Lee Valley Poems (2009), Narrative Poem (2017) and A Tower Built Downwards (2023), as well as his long poem Yi (Green Integer, USA, 2002), Anniversary Snow (Shearsman, 2019), and Riding Pisces: Poems from Five Collections (Shearsman, 2008), a compilation of earlier work. He is co-editor with W.N. Herbert of Jade Ladder: Contemporary Chinese Poetry (Bloodaxe Books, 2012), and was awarded the International Nonino Prize in 2012. Both Where the Sea Stands Still and Narrative Poem are Poetry Book Society Recommended Translations.

• 9 Acknowledgements11 Introduction by Ai Weiwei一，短诗 SHORT POEMS根17 Root致身边消失的陌生人——给武汉19 To the Vanished Stranger Beside Us: Written for Wuhan死海20 Dead Sea青草祭22 Green Grass Offering虚构·2020 24 Fiction 2020魇·202025 Nightmares 2020瘟疫实验室 （一——三）28 Plague Laboratory （1-3）一只名叫“希望”的瓮31 An Urn Called ‘Hope’奥威尔的新年32 Orwellian New Year奥维德的泉水34Ovid’s Spring Water落：肖像35 Falling: A Portrait2019年12月19月: 冬至和诗37 19th December 2019: A Response Poem of the Winter Solstice柏林安哈尔特火车站大门39 Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof Main Gate 树林中的铁轨41 Railway Tracks in the Woods音乐会上的狐狸幽灵43 Phantom Foxes at a Concert羽毛·石头45 Feather – Stone石头·羽毛46 Stone – Feather“金沙，请听二十秒钟雨声”47 ‘Jinsha, Please Listen to 20 Seconds of Rain’在上博撫摸一只西周编钟49 Touching a Set of Western Zhou Dynasty Bells in Shanghai Museum听溥雪斋弹《梅花三弄》50 Listening to Pu Xuezhai Playing Three Plum Blossom Airs溆浦美人夜歌52 Xupu Beauty Nocturne星期一，以西湖为背景54 Monday, with West Lake for a Backdrop邋遢大士九十歌56 Messmaster 90 Song海上家书58 Letter Home from at Sea病毒隔离中的生日华尔兹（一——五）60 Birthday Waltz in Virus Isolation (1-5)名字的诞生63 Birth of a Name汕大，封存的家书65 Shantou University: A Sealed Letter Home绚丽的不可解封之诗66 Magnificent Nonblockable Poem听茶 （一） 68 Hear Tea (1)听茶 （二） 69 Hear Tea (2)念湖70 Lake Longing白千层72 A Thousand White Layers御花园·零与夜73 Imperial Garden. Zero and Night御花园·孔雀74Imperial Garden. Peacock御花园·牡蛎75 Imperial Garden. Oyster御花园·铜舟76 Imperial Garden. Bronze Boat御花园·墨乐77 Imperial Garden. Music of Ink御花园·来德之风78 Imperial Garden. Laide’s Wind御花园·玉圭79 Imperial Garden. Jade Tablet御花园·石器时代80 Imperial Garden. Stone Age御花园·最后的81 Imperial Garden. Final罪恶研究82 Researching Evil反安魂曲86 Anti-requiem二，组诗 SEQUENCES轮回·灵骨塔（98行）91 Reincarnation – Stupa (98 Lines)倒退的历史诗95 Poems on Turning Back History韩退之中元节，或从四面八方坍塌到我们头上的时光98 Han (Retreater) Yu’s Hungry Ghost DayOr, Time That Collapses onto Our Heads from All Sides 高福里中元节，上海背影之歌102 Hungry Ghost Day at South GateOr, A Song of the Back View of Shanghai鹤乡107 Crane Land大夫，我是你身边一滴水111 Master, I’m a Drop of Water by Your Side三，长诗 LONG POEMS一座向下修建的塔119 A Tower Built Downwards迷宫137 Labyrinth奥威尔的新年（诗剧版本）151 Orwell’s New Year – A Verse Drama

Those lonely Tang dynasty poets may be Yang’s original blues brothers, but he’s as much a modernist and symbolist in the vein of Mallarmé or Rimbaud […] Yang Lian’s work is rooted not in geography but in his own imagination […] to exist in Yang’s lines can be a gorgeous but frustrating adventure.