The Rose of Time: Essays by Bei Dao

Author: Bei Dao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: What kind of book is this, and how should we read it? In this era of "living in haste, not having time to feel" (Pushkin), we rarely immerse ourselves in memories. But in the spring of 2005 (a year that is not insignificant, though Huang Renyu once said the 15th year of the Wanli era was unimportant), Bei Dao's book opened the floodgates of my memories. By the way! I really want to say, this is a book that can rejuvenate us! It will lead us into personal memories, which are also memories of an era—the 1970s or 1980s. We once lived, translated, and wrote in a legendary way. Although some have already passed away, such as Zhao Yifan, Gu Cheng, Hai Zi, and Luo Yihuo, as Bei Dao says in this book: "Artists will die, but the happiness of the life they have experienced is eternal." (Quoted from Pasternak's essay in the book). Indeed, in Bei Dao's memories, the 1970s and 1980s are eternal. It was this book by Bei Dao that brought me back to those long-gone years and allowed the dead to come back to life, to shine once more. My past life and writing seemed to follow this book and experience everything all over again. Everything is right here, truly tangible. It immersed me in memories, the years when I first encountered poetry, the moments when I met outstanding translated poems. This book by Bei Dao also fulfills a mission. It guides us to recall, to recall the unique context of an era; at the same time, it tells us how the modernity of Western poetry was realized in China through translations. But most importantly, we must understand that the modernity of Chinese writing is carried out through dialogue with these Western poets. We are so closely connected that we are completely familiar with each other, of course, with absolutely no sense of difference. Let us open this book's pages and enter the memories together with the author, into the translation and writing of an era!