Middle-Aged Man's Self-Portrait
poems by Yan An
translated
by Chen Du & Xisheng Chen
17 pages, paper, staple-bound
Toad Press, 2025. $6.00
poems by Yan An
translations by Chen Du & Xisheng Chen
cover art by Yichao Sun
You can purchase a copy of Middle-Aged Man's Self-Portrait from submittable.A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An is the author of 15 poetry books, including Rock Arrangement, which won him The Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China’s top four literary prizes. The winner of various national awards and prizes, he is also a Vice President of the Poetry Institute of China, a Vice President of the Shaanxi Writers Association, a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association, and the head and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Yan River, one of the oldest and most famous literary journals in Northwestern China. In English, his full-length poetry collection, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen and published by Chax Press, was one of four titles shortlisted for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. The poems in this chapbook are from Yan An’s full-length poetry collection Rock Arrangement.Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published 150+ English translations, poems, and essays in 50+ literary journals.
Xisheng Chen, a Chinese American, is an ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator, and educator. A translator for over three decades, he has published translations in various fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad. He is also a freelance translator for JTG, Inc., Reston, VA for the translation project for the US Department of Justice.
A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An is the author of 15 poetry books, including Rock Arrangement, which won him The Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China’s top four literary prizes. The winner of various national awards and prizes, he is also a Vice President of the Poetry Institute of China, a Vice President of the Shaanxi Writers Association, a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association, and the head and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Yan River, one of the oldest and most famous literary journals in Northwestern China. In English, his full-length poetry collection, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen and published by Chax Press, was one of four titles shortlisted for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association. The poems in this chapbook are from Yan An’s full-length poetry collection Rock Arrangement.Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published 150+ English translations, poems, and essays in 50+ literary journals.
Xisheng Chen, a Chinese American, is an ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator, and educator. A translator for over three decades, he has published translations in various fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad. He is also a freelance translator for JTG, Inc., Reston, VA for the translation project for the US Department of Justice.
Chen Du is a voting member of the American Translators Association and an expert member of the Translators Association of China with a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States and a few other Western countries, she has published 150+ English translations, poems, and essays in 50+ literary journals.
Xisheng Chen, a Chinese American, is an ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator, and educator. A translator for over three decades, he has published translations in various fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad. He is also a freelance translator for JTG, Inc., Reston, VA for the translation project for the US Department of Justice.
