Chinese Windmill

A member of the group of Chinese poets known as "They," Li Sen is well-known in China. Chinese Windmill is a collection of thirty-three of his recent poems, presented in Chinese with facing English translations. Li's poems are profoundly influenced by American poetry, and he owes much of his inspiration to the poetics of Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, and William Carlos Williams. In his poetry, he undertakes to build a balance between metaphysics and deconstruction. His poems start with things and lead poetically to metaphysical questioning; at the same time, they deconstruct culture, knowledge, and language. In the context of such poetics, his poems pay attention to the existence of contemporary Chinese people, casting an intellectually critical eye on contemporary life. His poems reject degradation through criticism and salvation, and look for traces of life in the process of construction and deconstruction. These impressive lines bespeak the anguish shouldered by an intellectual and serve as contemporary lyrics that seek new life in suffering.