HOMINGS & DEPARTURES
Standing at the Gas Station on a Winter’s Night, What Am I Afraid of | 冬夜站在加油站我怕什么
Translated by Eleanor Goodman A driver used to long-haul raids, I watch pigeons by the gas station, waiting for fries dropped by people coming out of the fast food joint a few people with obscured faces wait in the cold …
Shovel | 一把铁锹
Translated by a j carruthers and Cui Yuwei noon after snow Kirin Bay Park there where there’s a far corner in this patch of wood a shovel I see stuck up a tree two print-foot-trails snake along here from the …
Sighs | 叹息
Translated by Xuan Yuan and Tim Lilburn —for all the slaughter victims I hear, I hear the flock of rain, crowing, rushing out of stirred crowds of chaos and fright, sweeping past, laughing, roars of laughter crashing into the Wailing …
The Fog of Our Age | 我们年龄的雾
Translated by Heather Inwood How it got here is a puzzle. That’s not to say it’s unsolvable, but I’d rather keep a little mystery for myself. Snail-like, up the steps, against the wall; wherever I look I see its milky …
The Reliquary | 宝塔
Translated by Ali McIness —for Li Chun and His Contemporaries The reliquary is a candle; the lake by the trees And the bottle on its shore, drawing on its warmth. And why isn’t it the bottle? You raise it, perhaps …
Cardboard Boxes | 纸箱子
Translated by Canaan Morse I know you remember those bound-up carboard boxes. When the spring tide came, they floated in every hallway, light and rigid, like the model ships boys carry. This once brought me peace, as I have only …
Rangoon Lover | 仰光情人
Translated by Liang Yujing Your mind is to taste all nightmares. Your body in charge of fond dreams. Open your icebox, your white bra. Open the two clean lungs like you push open the shutters. Knock the drumbeats into your …
Childhood Playmate | 童年玩伴
Translated by Gu Yiwei and Cassandra Atherton Death, is another child, with a thin face Occasionally he comes to play with me, knocks three times, moderate and regular, forming a habit Like the scar on his forehead that is uncovered …
On Curing Depression | 关于抑郁症的治疗
Translated by Austin Woerner and Bao Huiyi Now all I need to do is carefully differentiate between each dull ache, name it, add a footnote, lock it up in the correct drawer: which tears I shed for my suffering father, …
Buji River Serenade | 布吉河小夜曲
Translated by Michelle Yeh Sunset, grey rain and railroad tracks blockaded by the river power lines gather concentrated daylight, clouds grow dim till they are swallowed by boundless silence as if they had sunk into a counterfeit continent Someone meditates …
Birthplace | 出生地
Translated by Henry Zhang and Amelia Dale People always bring up my birthplace, a cold Yunannese place with camellias and pines. It taught me Tibetan, and I forgot. It taught me a tenor; I haven’t sung That register is a …
Canton Holiday | 广州假期
Translated by Iris Fan Xing 1 thirty-nine thousand feet above a thin blue line runs across an unknown island on the map on the other side of the equator another pair of eyes lead you through peak hour crowds old …
