|
login
|
|
< back |
|
Flight (extract 2)
a god-given day utterly radiant
the sky ties on its blue apron like the mother of all Sundays who sets out at daybreak for markets of dawn in her basket fresh flowers bloom southern valley-basin a read clam oozing mud-slime the lakes too are azure fish swim in them young women lift their breasts clear of the village in the direction of the hives in forest clearings everything female is conceiving a cicada full of tenderness sits outside the forest-keeper’s hut how blessed I am to strike a day like this the sun up one of all the world’s living creatures mine, too, is a life in the light o God I know your secret far from the great river I discuss new makes of car on a dark street the air hurts us you are my blind spot for so many years now I’ve held myself apart from things all I see are the wigs in the rows in front of me the plastic flowers representing some kind of southern flora in the shadows of the mountains you turned into a bitch-wolf o Shanban lover of the jack-fruit of the South that day I crossed the Shweli River a dark-skinned daughter of the tropics lay floating on its reddish waters o bare-foot girl star-like beetles clung to your ragged skirt and on your neck: the dust of palm trees 2000 |
© 2000, Yu Jian From: Yu Jian de shi Publisher: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, Beijing, ISBN: 7 02 003328 8 |
© Translation: 2003, Simon Patton |