As a child in Shanghai, Zhao Lihong dreamed of becoming a musician or a painter. But instead of the colors of sound, ink and paint, he chose the colors of words and verse. Hardship and nature’s beauty became his muse.

It wouldn’t be the first time inspiration sprang from heartache.

Sent to the countryside on Chongming Island, where he toiled for eight years during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), Zhao started to write poetry and prose about nature, his feelings and his hopes for the future. “All those pains and sorrows become the spirit of my poems,” he said.

Today, at the age of 61, he is considered one of China’s most gifted poets and authors. He is director of the China Writers’ Association and vice chairman of the Shanghai Writers’ Association.

At the age of 16,  Zhao was uprooted from his family in the city and sent to toil in the countryside and learn from politically superior farmers on Chongming Island, where intellectual youth had no status; they were bumbling farm hands.

Poetry became his refuge and his passion.

Two years later, in 1970, he began writing in earnest and entered college in 1977, the first year China resumed the national college entrance examination after a halt of 10 years. He graduated in Chinese literature from East China Normal University in 1982. That graduating class, and other early classes, are famous for their determination and talent. Many of those who worked in the countryside rose to prominence in a range of fields.

Zhao has been writing ever since, publishing more than 70 works of poetry, prose and literary criticism, translated into various languages. He publishes a monthly Shanghai literature magazine and edits a bimonthly poetry journal. Some of his works are required reading in Chinese primary and secondary schools and in college.

He has received many awards over the years. The most recent is the Smederevo Golden Key in Serbia at the 44th Smederevo Poets’ Autumn Festival in October. His poetry collection “A Boat to Heaven” was released in Serbian at the 85th Belgrade International Book Fair ending last week in Belgrade. It was published in English in 2010 by Southword Editions of Ireland.

“Zhao’s poetry reminds us of the quality of freedom which is a prerequisite for love’s coming true,” said Radomir Andric, president of the Serbian Writers’ Association, at the awards ceremony in Smederevo.

Famous Serbian poet Dragan Dragojlovic, who translated Zhao’s poems, called him “one of the most gifted Chinese poets.”

“Zhao is a reflexive poet, receptive to most precious values of the Chinese tradition and sensitive to his times,” Dragojlovic said. “His life experience and the times in which he grew up and developed as a person and a poet have relieved him of all resentment or hatred, even when he speaks of his most exasperating experiences.”

He writes of historical memory, imagination, emotion, nature and landscapes.

“These are permanent elements of Chinese poetry and Zhao also introduces details of his own life. His poetry attains the imagery of the centuries-long Chinese tradition,” Dragojlovic said.

“The poet Zhao Lihong has worked quietly but determinedly for more than half a lifetime to create a body of work that makes the Chinese landscape sing,” wrote Irish poet Thomas McCarthy in the introduction to the English edition of “A Boat to Heaven” (2010) by Southward Editions, translated by Xu Qin.

“He is a very long-term conversation; he has listened for signals, not from the rhetoric of the present moment but from the movement of tectonic plates. His conversation is with the enduring centuries, with what is permanent in Chinese landscape, art and memory.”

At the awards ceremony in Serbia last month, Zhao cited China’s 5,000-year-old tradition of poetry, saying “classical poetry penned by our ancestors is a treasure of human civilization. Contemporary Chinese poetry is a continuation of that tradition in the new era.”

Zhao Lihong spoke to Shanghai Daily after the awards ceremony in Serbia.

Q: How do you view the “cultural revolution” today?

A: It was a unique period in contemporary history and a nightmare to many Chinese who suffered greatly in turbulent days. Most of the people of my generation were sent to the remote countryside to work in the fields. We were pulled down to the lowest rank of the social classes. We became the victims, but we also saw the real kindness, simplicity and toughness of the farmers who were struggling just above the poverty line. We learned from them and grew in maturity. It could be said that our generation became even stronger after the “cultural revolution.” We have our own thoughts and we don’t follow blindly. We can always find brightness in darkness and hope in despair.

Q: How did those turbulent days influence your writings?

A: For a writer or poet, any hardship or test in life can be regarded as a blessing. Looking back, the years I spent in the countryside are one of the most colorful periods of my life. All the pains and sorrows have become the spirit of my poems. When I started to write, I had never thought that I would be a poet one day. I never thought that the words that I penned would make me popular later. Every night, after a day’s hard work in the field, I returned to my little thatched hut, sat by the dim oil lamp and wrote about my love of nature, my thoughts on life, and my hope for the future. I recorded my life in poems and prose. Without that part of my life, I would not be the person I am; neither would there be poems that touched the hearts of many people.

Q: How did your dream of becoming an artist or a musician turn to poetry?

A: Everyone dreamed of being a musician or painter when they were little, but you need to be very talented, or at least get special training, to become professional. I had neither. So, naturally, I opted for literature. Literature is more easygoing. As long as I have a pen and paper, I can write the things hidden in my heart, the things I brood about in my soul ... My love for art never changes and I write my feelings about paintings and music in my prose. I think a poet must love music because every poem is a song that rhymes and resounds. My love of music and art has enriched my life. I often practice calligraphy and listen to music, which brings tranquillity to the soul as my mind flapping its imaginary wings with words, dances with the melody.

Q: How are you influenced by Chinese literature?

A: Chinese wisdom is best represented in poetry. Our ancestors used the most refined words to describe the beauties of nature, their profound thoughts about life and the feelings in their heart. Chinese classical poems are gems of human literature and diamonds of words ... No one can reject the charm of classical poetry, even in the days when all traditions were criticized. Today my poems are not written with the same strict classical rules, but the traditional way of expressing my feelings and ideals still influences me. Many talented contemporary poets grew up reciting classical poems ... It is impossible to separate us from the tradition.

Q: Are there other literary influences?

A: I like all words about love and beauty in any language. (Zhao only speaks and reads Chinese.) Chinese translators are among world’s hardest working. Through them, we manage to read almost all the classical foreign literature. Most popular and influential works have been translated into Chinese ... We don’t reject foreign works. We like foreign literature. Many works of European and American writers have greatly inspired Chinese writers. I think human emotions are the same, no matter in what language we are writing. Our observations of life and experience may differ but our discoveries of the truth can always arouse the same affection and compassion in each other’s hearts. Tagore is a major influence.

A Boat to Heaven

“A Boat to Heaven” from the collection “A Boat to Heaven”

Written about feelings when listening to Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo.

The violin tunes like a boat in his hands

Sailing freely on a musical journey

Loaded with all the happiness and sadness of a secular world

And colors of rain in spring and lights of snow in winter

Fine views keep changing over the water’s surface

Time’s river flows quietly through the fingertips

With a sigh, green leaves fall off the branches

A quivering of strings, small streams turn into a boundless sea

The soul trembles when the bow kisses the strings

Heaving waves cut through the oars

Shining pearls begin splashing along the sides

All the aromas of the world are pervading the site

I hear tender waters dashing and winding

I see happy tears flying all over

No one could ever predict the track of the boat

Only the master can navigate deep from the heart

Holding the violin is like holding a love pair

Bows rise and fall over the strings like flickering wings

A boat on the water has thus become a bird in the air

Piercing through the misty clouds to soar high under the peaceful stars

Listen breathlessly, this melody is from heaven

And quietly, this musical boat knocks at the window of every soul

Let the buds in your heart fling into full bloom at this moment

And romances be given full play till the end of your thoughts

— Sibu Zhai, late night on May 10, 1998