The first publication of the poetry of Liu Xia, wife of the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo
Empty Chairs
Selected Poems
- “A testament to the human spirit when that spirit is confined. . . . Bold and vital.”—The Washington Post
I didn’t have a chance
to say a word before you became
a character in the news,
everyone looking up to you
as I was worn down
at the edge of the crowd
just smoking
and watching the sky.
A new myth, maybe, was forming
there, but the sun was so bright
I couldn’t see it.
—from “June 2nd, 1989 (for Xiaobo)”
to say a word before you became
a character in the news,
everyone looking up to you
as I was worn down
at the edge of the crowd
just smoking
and watching the sky.
A new myth, maybe, was forming
there, but the sun was so bright
I couldn’t see it.
—from “June 2nd, 1989 (for Xiaobo)”
Empty Chairs presents the poetry of Liu Xia for the first time freely in both English translation and in the Chinese original. Selected from thirty years of her work, and including some of her haunting photography, this book creates a portrait of a life lived under duress, a voice in danger of being silenced, and a spirit that is shaken but so far indomitable. Liu Xia's poems are potent, acute moments of inquiry that peel back to expose the fraught complexity of an interior world. They are felt and insightful, colored through with political constraints even as they seep beyond those constraints and toward love.
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Praise
- "Each poem is a container that bursts with breath like glass. . . . This delicate voice brings an immense capacity for a sense of self in an absurd world."—Washington Independent Review of Books
- “[Liu Xia] employs delicate practical phrases that nonetheless deliver a gut-wrenching punch. . . . Her phrases reveal the ordinary and corporeal effects of harrowing political circumstances.”—Boston Review
- "[Liu Xia] lends an intimate voice to the experiences of a life stolen by government surveillance, repression, and house arrest. . . . Liu kindles hope and companionship, even when all is lost."—Publishers Weekly
- "While [Liu Xia's] poems are deeply personal, they reveal an ever-present awareness of the perils of relentlessly pursuing art in the midst of an authoritarian government."—Words Without Borders
Acknowledgements
A Lannan Translation Selection
