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Mirrors and Windows

Mirrors and Windows

East-West Poems with translations

By Anna Yin

Over the years Anna Yin has had the honour to translate more than 50 poets’ works. With more and more people growing interested in translation and bilingual poetry, it is time to publish these translations in book form. I hope this serves as a good resource, and will further stimulate wider and stronger interest and conversation for cross-cultural exchange. As Maya Angelou said: "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." I hope this contribution will open more of these homes.

Details

Guernica Editions (Essential Anthologies Series)

9781771836159

280 pages |

$25.00 CAD
$25.00 CAD
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Reviews

The volume at hand is a very welcome one and will reward many readers for many days of the week.

John Robert Colombo, League of Canadian Poets

Reading Anna Yin's Mirrors and Windows is like viewing the colourful displays of different languages and cultures in the reflection of a mirror, or like watching lively parades on a two-way street from an upstairs window. I have jokingly regarded translation as a demon-revealing mirror. A work that does not possess a universal value, no matter how beautiful it appears or sounds, will show its true color of emptiness under the bright lights of translation. I believe the poems included in Anna's book, whether they are from the East or the West, have all passed this challenging test.

William Marr, Let the Feast Begin—My Favourite English Poems

Mirrors and Windows is a wonderful fruit of Anna Yin's work of years to translate English-language poets into Chinese and contemporary Chinese poets into English. Her insightful choices make the book a stimulating "personal anthology" of recent English poetry, especially valuable for its balance of Canadian poets with those from America and England. As for the modern Chinese poets Yin brings to us, I am grateful to her for her beautiful English renderings of them. In her hands, these poems become a true addition to our own language's poetry. For me, Mirrors and Windows takes a prominent place on the "contemporary favourites" shelf.

A. F. Moritz, 6th Poet Laureate of Toronto (2019-2022)

Poetry is not only a mirror to see oneself or a window to see the world but also a bridge, two-way, to actually get to the other side for deeper mutual understanding and communication. What Anna Yin has done, two-way translation, is meaningful not only to herself but to a much broader audience.

Ming Di (China-USA) Editor for EastWestPoetry

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Awards

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About the author

Anna Yin was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-2017) and has authored five poetry collections. Her poems/translations have appeared at ARC Poetry, the New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, World Journal etc. Anna won several poetry awards and teaches Poetry Alive in both English and Chinese.