Rock Arrangement

An English translation of an award-winning collection by Chinese poet Yan An.

Rock Arrangement by Yan An, a prominent contemporary Chinese poet, won the Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, China's highest literary honor, in 2014. Representing China's highest poetic achievements from 2010 to 2013, this poetry collection was translated into English for the first time and was a runner-up for Carnegie Mellon University Press's 2025 Literary Translation Prize.

Akin to eco-poetry in their core themes, characterized by surrealism, mythical elements, and high abstraction, and even abstruseness, these poems integrate regional culture, surrealist poetics, and philosophical reflection. They skillfully employ a variety of vivid rhetorical devices and create contrasts through unconventional combinations of imagery, developing a distinctive poetic and spiritual language. Rock Arrangement is a landmark work in contemporary Chinese poetry that combines intellectual depth with artistic innovation.