Contents
- The Emperor's City | 帝王都
- Witness | 见证
- Springtime Remembrance | 清明
- Like the Grass, I Sense Autumn Is Here | 我如草木 知秋
- Bell Chime at Dusk | 黄昏钟声
- Tribute to Mother on Grave Sweeping Day | 清明祭母
- Genghis Khan and his Hawk | 成吉思汗和他的鹰
From 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3
- Those days there always seemed to be
- chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs
- under the flower trellises
- and, as always in this world, the lonely and unexplained
- outbursts of drinking, crying...
— Li Shangyu, Unsightly Scenes
- The bells are benevolent hands,
- offering the poor a reason to smile
- and bestowing on the rich
- a few ethereal thoughts.
— Ren Xianqing, Bell Chime at Dusk
- The bricks are blind, the nails are naive,
- the shingles are impulsive, and love is crystal clear.
- His skinny body sways as he sings.
— Rong Rong, A Old Song
- Going into December,
- the whole country is on the move to deliver spring.
- Migrant workers are going home;
- beautiful women show up on the streets
- beneath coverings of wool or down...
— Chen Yanqiang, January (or An Evening of Reading)
- ---This is me in the same dream with the plum flower,
- and I asked her “With everyone to choose from,
- why did you marry the spring zephyr?”
— Song Huiyuan, In the Same Dream with the Plum Flower
- Farther away there is nothing but fog,
- maybe near a wide river,
- as to where the river is,
- no one knows and no one cares.
— Li Wei, For the Heck of It
- Neither the city nor its rough outskirts are desirable to me,
- but I've long since given up writing;
- now I wear a sword, sell medicine,
- do whatever it takes.
— Chen Guiliang, The Emperor's City
- Tell us,
- Ancestors, we are here to make our offerings,
- what do you want?
- But He looks down from above
- and sees only long slender hooks
- hanging down from the oil lamp.
— Yan Hen, A Night of Nihilism
- The hawk flies into the clouds,
- then comes to land on his hand.
- Genghis Khan trusts him more than any man.
— Liu Congmei, Genghis Khan and His Hawk
