Wandering Mind and Metaphysical Thoughts 遊神與玄思

Gao Xingjian does not write many poems, but the ones he has written are real gems; they are snippets of his reflective moods. To those of us who know the man, he is poetry incarnate, with the essential purity and density of a good poem. The present collection, his first and only poetry anthology in English translation, affords insights into Gao’s philosophy of freedom and the independence of spirit, and elucidates his ideas as a novelist, dramatist and painter. Modern art, claims Gao, is at a crisis point, under attack from all sides by onslaughts coming especially from politics and the marketplace, which results in what he calls the “annihilation” of beauty. We see Gao Xingjian as a natural, warm, and insightful thinker capable of grace, beauty, and his own brand of esoteric wisdom, at times almost honest to a fault but not without a touch of humor and wittiness. A riveting and compulsive read.

高行健的詩作不多，但都珠圍翠繞，也是他思緒的結晶。對於認識高行健的人來說，他就是詩歌的化身，擁有詩歌的精髓──純粹而濃郁。本書是他第一本、也是唯一的英譯詩選，闡明了他對小說、戲劇和繪畫的想法，讀者更可以深入了解他的自由哲學和崇尚獨立的精神。高行健認為，現代藝術正處於危機，受到來自政治和市場的襲擊，還有各方面的猛攻，所以他說，「美」正遭受「葬送」的厄運。在本詩集中，我們看到的高行健是一位悠然自得、熱情和洞明世情的思想家，他擁有優雅的情操和美感，獨具睿智，有時甚至過於誠實，但他的詩句總散發出一絲絲的幽默和妙趣。這是一本引人入勝的詩集，令讀者手不釋卷。