Ye Hui on the Innovations of Translation, His Writing Process, and the Relief of Finishing a Poem

For this installment in a long-running series of interviews with contemporary poets, contributing editor Peter Mishler corresponded with poet Ye Hui.

The poets corresponded using a messaging app that translated their responses. Dong Li, the English translator of Ye Hui’s The Ruins, joined in to help when needed.

Ye Hui is an acclaimed Chinese metaphysical poet who lives in the countryside of Nanjing. He is the author of three poetry collections,《在糖果店》(At the Candy Shop; Hungyeh Publishing, 1999), 《对应》(The Correspondence; Flower City Publishing House, 2009), and《遗址》(The Ruins; Shanghai EP/Changjiang Literature & Art Publishing House, 2019). His poems in English translation have appeared or are forthcoming in 128 Lit, The Arkansas International, Asymptote, Bennington Review, Blackbird, The Cincinnati Review, Circumference, Copihue Poetry, Guernica, The Kenyon Review, Lana Turner, The Massachusetts Review, Nashville Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and Zócalo Public Square. The English translation of his latest collection, The Ruins (Deep Vellum, 2025), was awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.