Parker Huang and Pao-Chen Chan

These collections contain 114 of my poems. 69 of them were originally written in English, the rest were written in Chinese. The English poems appeared in the following publications: The New York Times, The New York Herald, The New Haven Register, The Yale Review, The Literary Review, The Yale Literary Review, The Hudson Review, Nimrod, Orange Street Poetry Journal, and others. All have been self-translated.

In the beginning, this collection was meant to be nothing more than a modest celebration of my 50th year of marriage to Pao-Chen (Mabel) Chan. I tentatively named the collection Identical Twins to suggest that even though the poems were written in two different languages, they were all the offspring of the some mind and heart. Who would have even expected that this little collection would turn itself into a book and make its way across the Pacific to my motherland?

Many people have contributed to bringing this project to its final form. I would first like to thank Mabel's niece, Dorothy Chan, and her husband, Winston Ko, for their continual prodding and encouragement. I would also like to thank Shi Wei-da and Zhang Min-quen from the Oriental Publishing Center, Shanghai, who accepted the manuscript immediately while on a business trip to Los Angeles. I have in addition been extremely fortunate to have as my editor Liu Li-Xing who has been invaluable for both her professional support and her critical acumen.

There is a Chinese saying: "No book could ever come into existence without some amazing coincidence." That's exactly how I felt when I found out from Shi Wei-da that Liu Li-Xing is none other than the daughter of my old friends Liu Huo-Zi and Jing Duan-Ling! I vividly remember the last time I saw them: it was six decades ago, during the chaotic evacuation of Guilin just before Japanese troops attacked the city. How sad that my friends are no longer here to share with me my joy and excitement at collaborating with their daughter!

There are only a few of the individuals who have contributed to the making of this book. To all of them I extend my sincerest appreciation and gratitude. These poems were written in exile during a period spanning half a century. I am delighted that they have at last found the way home.

Parker Po-fei Huang
Pasadena, CA, USA
January 1, 2000