Comments received for New Cathay: Contemporary Chinese Poetry 1990-2012 (Tupelo Press, May 30, 2013)
(Note: quite a few good poets from 1990-2012 period were not included, unfortunately, due to various reasons such as copyright issues or late submissions. We hope to expand the anthology in 2016. MD)
这不仅仅是又一本中国当代诗选。明迪及其杰出的诗人-批评家-译者团队在此为英语读者展示了一幅与众不同的、繁复且极度精微的最新中国诗歌景观。不再是或许过于依赖西方模式的朦胧（或后朦胧）的对抗性诗歌，……（九十年代以来的）“新诗”凸现出一种高度原创的综合性：它熟知古典并被古典所激发，同时又兼容了诸如波德莱尔与兰波（的西方诗歌），并且植根于当代中国思想和文化之中。明迪精细的前言提供了这种新新诗歌的必要的历史背景，她所做的介绍非常引人瞩目，不仅信息量大，更彰显出一种非同寻常的率真：编者并没有声称她所收选的二十五位诗人个个都功成名就。书后收录的诗人访谈证实了这一点：诗人们坦诚地谈论着他们和之前的文学运动、西方影响、当下批评理论以及诗艺现状之间的关系。但凡对诗歌有兴趣的读者，都不难感受到这本书的魅力，并被书中展现出来的令人兴奋、风格多样、具有独特性的“中国”诗所吸引。
This is not just another anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry. Ming Di and her outstanding team of poets, critics, and translators here introduce the Anglophone reader to the distinctive, complex, and highly sophisticated landscape of recent Chinese poetry. No longer the Misty (or post-Misty) oppositional poetry that depended perhaps too fully on Western forms and modes, the “New Poetry” of what Ming Di calls the “Silver Age” is characterized by a highly original syncretism—at once classically inspired and au courant, at once familiar with Baudelaire and Rimbaud and yet rooted in contemporary Chinese thought and culture. Ming Di’s superb Preface provides the necessary historical background for this New New Poetry, and her introductions are remarkable not only for the information they provide but for an unusual candor: the editor does not claim each of her twenty-five poets is equally successful. The interviews at the back of the book bear this out: the poets speak candidly about their relationships to earlier movements, Western influences, critical theory today, and the state of the art. No one interested in poetry can fail to be charmed and intrigued by the exciting, wide-ranging, and yet always uniquely “Chinese” poetry presented in these pages.
–玛乔瑞·帕洛夫Marjorie Perloff（美国著名诗歌批评家，斯坦福大学教授）
I have long awaited such a rich and vibrant anthology as New Cathay, a generous sampling of contemporary Chinese poetry (1990–2012) which has evolved from drastic social and political change and now thrives like a great tree grown out of the dawn of the modern era, through the Mao years and the tumultuous Cultural Revolution, and into the complex, variegated structures of China today. The poems represent a poetic culture exploring anew its own ancient literature as well as the modern and contemporary poetry of Europe and the Americas . An engaging preface by editor-translator Ming Di and interviews with the poets frame translations that render not only the gist and pith but also the spirit and emotional tone of the originals, …
–威廉·奥戴里William O’Daly （美国诗人，著名翻译家，雷克斯雷斯的学生，聂鲁达八册诗集英译者）
是不同文化通过诗歌而相互沟通的时候了……《新华夏集》是一本中国当代诗歌的令人印象深刻的选集，它为我们通过诗歌进行全球性对话贡献了诸多新锐而富有挑战性的声音。感谢明迪及其技艺精湛的诗人译者团队，这本选集里的每首诗都被再次创作成了地道的英语诗，甚至作为翻译也成为一种激荡人心的（阅读）经验。
It is time for cultures and people to engage and dialogue through poetry… New Cathay is an impressive collection of contemporary Chinese poetry that contributes new and provocative voices to our global conversation through poetry. Thanks to Ming Di and her cadre of accomplished poet-translators, every poem in this collection has been recreated as a poem in English and therefore remains a stirring experience even in translation.
–夏蕾·沃尔普Sholeh Wolpé （伊朗裔美国诗人，翻译家，文学编辑）
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