Like cat eyes

HSIA YU [1956] is considered one of the most original poets of the Chinese language area. The collection ALS KATTENOGEN, which contains fifty poems selected by translator Silvia Marijnissen, shows how this poet, born in Taiwan, has increasingly become concerned with the specific possibilities of language.
Modern life in all its facets is central to Hsia Yu's poetry. She makes grateful use of the sensory possibilities offered by her three great passions: modern music, dance and film. In her poetry she often plays with clichés about women and men and their interaction: she distorts these clichés, hollows them out, turns them inside out.
Translator Silvia Marijnissen provided the collection with a clear and captivating afterword, in which she discusses, among other things, the game the poet plays with language, the experimental aspect of her poetry and the choices that this way of writing repeatedly confronts the translator with.