A seminal poem by the late Chou Meng-tieh, regarded as a pioneer of Taiwanese poetry
By Chou Meng-tieh and Lee Yew Leong for Translation Tuesdays byAsymptote, part of the Guardian Books Network
Regarded widely as a pioneer of Taiwanese poetry, Chou was named the first Literature Laureate by Taiwan’s National Culture and Arts Foundation in 1997. But his literary achievement belied a lifetime of monastic poverty, decades of which he spent selling books out of a roadside stall. Two years after Chou’s passing in 2014, without any surviving family, our editor-in-chief presents a new translation of one of Chou’s seminal poems, marked by his characteristically ascetic vision.
—The editors at Asymptote