Bell and Drum Towers: Five Poems

Poet Mai Mang 麦芒 translates five poems of his own into English. These poems, “Bell and Drum Towers” and “Hart Island” included, treat silence as an indispensable part of history and reality residing within us, regardless of where or who we are. In the last poem, “Another Discourse on Why I Write Poetry,” Mai Mang deliberately asserts: “Writing poetry is in order to not speak.” Because, as he sees it, “If you speak better than you write, then why write?”