el dang reviewed The Lantern and the Night Moths by Yilin Wang
An utter delight
5 stars
It took me months to read this because I wanted to savour every poem, and the very personal essays that Wang included as a sort of translator's notes / author bio hybrid.
The 5 poets have very distinct voices and styles, and I hope that more of each of their work gets translated into English. Without being able to read the originals I can only judge so much about the translation but I found them very readable, the footnotes helpful without being excessive, and the distinctness of each poet's voice seems like a vote of confidence in the translations.
It took me months to read this because I wanted to savour every poem, and the very personal essays that Wang included as a sort of translator's notes / author bio hybrid.
The 5 poets have very distinct voices and styles, and I hope that more of each of their work gets translated into English. Without being able to read the originals I can only judge so much about the translation but I found them very readable, the footnotes helpful without being excessive, and the distinctness of each poet's voice seems like a vote of confidence in the translations.