International Poets Showcase - Wolfgang Kubin

Poet, sinologist, and public intellectual Wolfgang Kubin was born in Celle, Germany, in 1945. While more well-known as a leading figure of European Chinese studies, he is also known as a poet. His poetry was first published in 2000 with the title Das neue Lied von der alten Verzweiflung (tr. The New Song about Old Despair). Narrentürme (tr. Fools’ Towers) was published in 2005, and Schattentänzer (tr. Shadow Dancer) in 2004. Philosophical and political in nature, his poetry reflects on the places he has lived and his travels to Madrid and Salamanca, the US, and, of course, China, which has become a second home. In 2006 he published a collection of short stories entitled Halbzeit einer Liebe (tr. Half-time of a Love). In Kubin’s fiction and poetry, readers recall the impulse behind traveling, the push to discover the distant and unknown, and if not discover, then be closer to it.

Wolfgang Kubin on Contemporary Chinese Literature 

Chinese Characters and Roman Letters: The Art of Modern Poetry

Wolfgang Kubin on Ouyang Jianghe

Interview with Kubin