HAI ZI (Zha Haisheng) - Facing the sea, flowers in spring

From tomorrow on, be a happy man
Raise horses, chop wood, see the world.
From tomorrow on, care about food and vegetables
I will have a house, facing the sea, and flowers in spring.

From tomorrow on, write to all my family
Tell them of my happiness
This spark of joy, its message
I will let everyone know

Give every river, every mountain, a warm name

You too, stranger, I wish you the best
Wish you a brilliant future
Wish you everlasting love
Wish you happiness in this world

Me, I just want to face the sea, and have flowers in spring.

Bei Dao- A Portrait

wounded by convictions, he came from August
a mother's Perilous love
stolen away by a mirror
he's sideways between the rhinoceros and politics
like a fissure separating epochs

o conspirators, I'm nothing now
but a common wanderer
walking the cavernous museum's chessboard
trading places with strangers

great passion's never outdated
but our visits require secrecy
suddenly I feel the ache of strings
you're tuning, play me a song
somewhere predators haven't yet risen into our history


Translated from Chinese by David Hinton

Gu Cheng- Summer Outside the Pane

the crying lasted long through the night
when the sun rose
the raindrops glittered
before steaming away
I didn't wipe the glass
I knew that the sky was blue
and the trees were out there, comparing their hair
clacking their castanets
pretending to be huge predatory insects

it all is so distant

once we were weak as morning cicadas
with wet wings
the leaves were thick, we were young
knowing nothing, not wanting to know
knowing only that dreams could drift
and lead us to the day
clouds could walk in the wind
lakewater could gather light
into a glinting mirror
we looked at the green green leaves
I still don't want to know
haven't wiped the glass
ink-green waves of summer rise and fall
oars knock
fish split the shining current
a red-swimsuit laughter keeps fading

it all is so distant
that summer still lingers
the crying has stopped


Translated from Chinese by Aaron Crippen.
Published by Archipelago Publishers, Inc.. Volume 7, Issue 1.

HAI ZI (Zha Haisheng)- Teardrops

The last of the summit’s leaves slowly redden
The mountain range seems a poor child’s gray and white horses
In October’s final night
Fallen into a pool of blood.

In October’s final night
The poor child, carrying a lamp in night, is on his way home tear-flow covers
the face
All die midway to the distant home’s small town
In October’s final night

That man with his back to the tavern’s white wall
Asks about the man buried in the pea-field at home
In October’s final night
Asks for whom the white horse and the gray horse die…… blood blackish-red

Whether their master, carrying a lamp, has returned home or not
Whether the specter of autumn is keeping him company or not
Whether they are all corpses or not
All madly stampeding on that road to the Abyss

Whether this specter opens a window for me
To toss me a worn-out collection of poems
In October’s final night
From now on I’ll never write you.

Translated from Chinese by Gerald Maa
Circumference Poetry in Translation Issue 6