Broad Sea and Empty Sky

Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) was China’s first great modern poet and a major figure of the intellectual revolution that shaped modern China. Educated in China (Peking University), America (Columbia and Clark), and England (Cambridge, where there is a monument in his honor), he was in contact with every major Chinese literary figure of his day, and met and was influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, Thomas Hardy, Katherine Mansfield, and Bertrand Russell, among others. Xu incorporated elements of the English poetic tradition and that of East India with native Chinese traditions to create a body of work that spoke to his contemporaries at a critical time in their history, and still speaks today. This book presents the largest selection of Xu’s poems available in English, as well as some of his prose works. Essays by translator Dorothy Bonett put the poet into context for English-speaking readers and reveals links between his works and other modern poetry, both Chinese and non-Chinese.