21/09/2025
✨ New Release: Bone Skin Flesh 骨皮肉 ✨
「愛情非霜淇淋。
你說，也不全然固定
或者流動
那麼，在這間小小的房裡，
空氣中填塞的是什麼？
狡黠的你賊賊答我:
欲望是甜的，
而房間是方糖。
因此，
我們互相調劑彼此的體味」
The bilingual edition of Bone Skin Flesh by Taiwanese poet Yen Ai-Lin 顏艾琳, now translated into English for the first time by Jenn Marie Nunes.
Originally published in Chinese in 1997, this landmark collection of contemporary Taiwanese poetry delves into the feminine—its desires, violences, and contradictions—with language that is visceral, imagistic, and unrelenting. Here, the body is never just metaphor: truth is spit, the sky a leaking breast, the moon a tongue pressed to skyscrapers. Women—mother, lover, crone—appear as mythic and ordinary, tender and grotesque.
Infused with punk spirit and kin to the Gurlesque, Yen’s poems claim the feminine as a site of rebellion, pleasure, and creation. Bone Skin Flesh is poetry that demands not only to be read, but lived with.
“Ai-lin writes as a poet of humanity’s true homeland, free from parochial traditions. Her words affirm human values and open new horizons, making her one of Taiwan’s most respected and cherished contemporary voices.”
— Zheng Chouyu (鄭愁予), Poet
This edition, translated by poet and scholar Jenn Marie Nunes, allows Yen Ai-Lin’s powerful voice to reach new readers while preserving the intensity and intimacy of her original work.
by Yen Ai Lin. Translated by Jenn Marie Nunes. First published in Chinese in 1997, now appears in a bilingual edition with its first English translations by Jenn Marie Nunes. A landmark in contemporary Taiwanese poetry, these poems revel in the feminine-its desires, violences, and contradictions-thr...
