Old Snow

Dao Bei

The three sections of Bei Dao's moving book of poems – "Berlin", "Oslo" and "Stockholm" – are poignant reminders of the restless and rootless life of the exile. All the poems in this bilingual collection were written after Tiananmen Square (4 June 1989), when Bei Dao was away from his Peking home, to which he has so far been unable to return. His poems refer back to this watershed both overtly and in dense images of loss and betrayal. Old Snow confirms Bei Dao's standing as China's leading poet.

About the Author

Bei Dao (the pseudonym means "north island") was born in Beijing in 1949. Educated into the beliefs of Communist China, his subsequent disaffection found its voice in poetry, for which he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize on several occasions. Since 1989 he has lived first in Europe, then in the USA, and finally Hong Kong, where he teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poetry in English translation includes "The August Sleepwalker" (1988), "Old Snow" (1992), "Forms of Distance" (1994), "Landscape Over Zero" (1998) and "Unlock" (2006). He has also published several collections of essays, including "Midnight's Gate" (2007).

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