of Emptiness, Beata Grant renders a great service by recovering and translating the enchanting verse - by turns assertive, observant, devout - of forty-eight nuns from sixteen centuries of imperial China. This selection of poems, along with the brief biographical accounts that accompany them, affords readers a glimpse into the extraordinary diversity and sometimes startling richness of these women's lives.A sample poem for this stunning collection:The sequence of seasons naturally pushes forward,Suddenly I am startled by the ending of the year.Lifting my eyes I catch sight of the winter crows,Calling mournfully as if wanting to complain.The sunlight is cold rather than gentle,Spreading over the four corners like a cloud.A cold wind blows fitfully in from the north,Its sad whistling filling courtyards and houses.Head raised, I gaze in the direction of Spring,But Spring pays no attention to me at all.Time a galloping colt glimpsed through a crack,The tap [of Death] at the door has its predestined time.How should I not know, one who has left the world,And for whom floating clouds are already familiar?In the garden there grows a rosary-plum tree:Whose sworn friendship makes it possible to endure.- Chan Master Jingnuo

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