A THOUSAND LINE ELEGY

by Cheng Yong  
Translator: Amy Li  

“I took a walk around the burned house and saw a group of ants carrying bones into the bushes. Then, I had a boring conversation with the ants. The ants blamed me wasting the resources of the earth. Wars and civil quarrels happen continuously in an effort to control limited resources...” from A Thousand Line Elegy

Author Cheng Yong was born in Shanghai. He is mainly engaged in poetry writing and appraising cultural relics. He has published 18 collections of poems, novels and works on identifying cultural relics.

Translator Amy Li is currently an English editor for the Chinese online platform Sino-Foreign Writers. She received her master’s degree in English education from SUNY Albany. She has been actively translating English and Chinese poetry.