Self Translation

‘in the river

before the eye

on the heaven beneath the feet’

Poems first written in Chinese but now presented in both Chinese and English, Self Translation is arguably Ouyang Yu’s most lyrical and resonant collection of poetry to date. The verse inhabits China and Australia in spirit and the natural world in both nations. Mellow and beautiful, yet questioning of the author’s own experience of moving between cultures, these are poems that provide a perfect companion to Ouyang’s award-winning novel The English Class. They feel at once Chinese and Australian in the intuitive and often indefinable elements that provide a path between two places.