Sidetracks

A legend in Chinese poetry and contemporary writing, Bei Dao (the pen name for Zhao Zhenkai) returns to poetry after almost 15 years with Sidetracks, translated by Jeffrey Yang. The book-length poem is a culmination of the work and living he’s done since 1989, when he was exiled from China over the Tiananmen Square student protests. Dao posits Sidetracks as both a reflection of his own art and political work during his time in Europe, the U.S., and Hong Kong, as well as a tribute to the writers who inspired him, from Dylan Thomas to Mahmoud Darwish. In the book’s afterword, Dao writes that the pandemic illuminated “time’s urgency”—an urgency reflected in the constant, thumping drum of this long song, where Dao writes that “It is time for poetry to disclose the will of heaven./ It is time.”

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