Short form, but less abrupt than the haiku, the quatrain does not stick to the lapidary, he knows how to give rhythm to the thought, to the emotion, to the surprise, he knows how to initiate a questioning, to initiate a meditation, to sketch a song. Following the original Chinese poets, but also Omar Khayyâm and Emily Dickinson, François Cheng attests here the singular power of this narrow mode of expression, yet so little enclosed, so open to resonances, fertile wanderings, even in a salutary way of simple spell.--Gallimard.