Translated by Ouyang Yu

at five in the morning, i can hear pigs shrieking
from across the river
i can imagine how a sharp knife
thrusts into the throat of a pig
and how the hot blood shining with a cold light
spurts out into the world relentlessly …

a new day, the things around me
— the trees, the birds as well as that small river
it is in this hair-and-bone terror that they wake up

Zhang Minhua is a judge and poet who works in Jiashan Court, Zhejiang Province, China.