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Rivers
there are many rivers in the mountains where I grew up
in deep gorges they flow they rarely catch a glimpse of sky there are no expansive sails hoisted high over their surfaces nor huge flocks of river gulls drawn on by boat-songs it’s only when you’ve climbed endless ridges and hills that you hear this river sound it’s only on rafts made of great tree-trunks lashed together that you dare ride upon these waves some areas will stay forever unknown to humankind the freedom of those places belongs to the eagles alone in the rainy season the waters turn brutal gale winds on the high plateau push boulders down into valleys mud dyes the rivers red as if the mountains were actually bleeding only when it’s calm do you see the plateau’s bulging veins those people who live on either side of these rivers may never come to know of one another’s existence but wherever you go in the place I grew up in you will here people talking about these rivers as if discussing their gods 1983 |
© 2000, Yu Jian From: Yu Jian de shi Publisher: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, Beijing, ISBN: 7 02 003328 8 |
© Translation: 2003, Simon Patton |