ABSTRACT
A native of Canton, Lin Ling was born in Sichuan and grew up in Xian. She is a member of the Modernist School of poetry. Most of her poems, including those translated here, were published while she was in college in Taiwan. These works have firmly established Lin as one of the leading Chinese women poets. Her Collected Poems of Lin Ling was published in Taiwan in 1982. Her poem, 'The Passing of 20/20 Vision', included here, appears in her collection Between Plant and Ghost, published in 2003. Born in the sun's old home but with an ocean as a tomb, like tiny meteorites in the sky the night-returning fishermen's fires are tears of the mourners. Cut flowers in the vase drop dropping on the blank pages of poems that are open dropping onto blank separation. You are what I've imagined a long time yet never drawn, an unrealized model you bell ringer in black.
