YEAR’S END

from the year’s beginning to its end
I’ve walked through countless years
time bending back on itself
shoes of those who’ve given up scattered everywhere
dust of the private
litter of the public

it’s been a perfect normal year
my sledgehammer sits idle, and yet
borrowing the light of the future
I glimpse that metric standard in platinum
here on the anvil.

From: “Forms of Distance”, tr. David Hinton,
New Directions Publishing Corp. N.Y., 1994

OUTSIDER

one generation drops like a curtain
the next is applauding

the lifetime you’ve known
hiding in dark places
starts gaining attention
groping, hence light
letting half a life empty out
and fill with crane song

someone’s swimming in sickness
as autumn winds inspects
the small temperaments of young animals
the road joins sleep
and in radiant light that’s defeated you
you stand fast at the nameless fence.

from: “Landscape over Zero”, tr. David Hinton,
New Directions Publishing Corp. N.Y., 1996

© Zhao Zhenkai – Publication authorized by the author

Bei Dao (penname for Zhao Zhenkai, born 1949 in Peking lives since 1986 in exile. Belonging to the “dark poets”, he is one of the founders of the Chinese literature magazine “TODAY”. No allowed to re-enter his homeland after the massacre at Tien-a-men Square he settled in the United States after having lived in Denmark , Sweden , Germany and France . His poetry has been published by leading publishers in German, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish etc. In English appeared “The August Sleepwalker”,1990; “Old Snow”, 1991; “Forms of Distance”, 1994; “Landscape over Zero”, 1996. Often reported to be on the short list for the Nobel Prize and recently elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
Bei Dao is China’s pre-eminent contemporary poet.