Today is Lunar New Year. It marks the beginning of a new year in the lunisolar calendar. It is an important holiday in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and countries with a large diasporic East Asian population. To celebrate, we are sharing a few poems from our archive that pertain to Lunar New Year and its celebrations.
Lunar New Year, 1988 Jenny Xie Doors plastered with red paper cutouts so that the oncoming year passes these houses by. Sweep out the insistent winter. Make what you will out of ritual— the relative with the steadiest hands cuts the hair of her cousins. READ MORE
Fortunetelling Yi Sang Translated from the Korean by Jack Jung The fortuneteller pencil-sketches the basic outline of my life on a paper. How can it be so sparse? I surrender my money and my past to this outline and enter its meaningless chatter. However, there are only promised handshakes with strangers. READ MORE
Spring Snow Han Yu Translated from the Chinese by Jonathan Stalling new year’s comes but blooms don’t grow March nears sur-prised grass sprouts grow READ MORE
Thank you, dear reader, for taking the time out of your day to read a few more poems in honor of Lunar New Year. See you tomorrow, Team Poetry Daily
