Black Dog, Black Night

Book excerpt: “A monumental contribution to international literature.” —BLOOMSBURY REVIEW Vietnam—the very word raises many associations for Westerners. Yet while the country has been ravaged by a modern history of colonialism and war, its ancient culture is rich and multilayered, and within it poetry has long had a special place. In this groundbreaking anthology, coeditors and translators Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover present a revelatory portrait of contemporary Vietnamese poetry. What emerges from this conversation of outsiders and insiders, Vietnamese and American voices, is a worldly sensibility descended from the geographical and historical crossroads of Vietnam in the modern era. Reflecting influences as diverse as traditional folk stories and American Modernism, the twenty-one poets included in Black Dog, Black Night, many of whom have never before been published in English, introduce readers to a fresh, uncensored, and utterly unique poetic vision.