More poems and contributor notes in Chinese feature
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Yao Feng (Yao Jingming)
for the miners who died in the Taiping mine
one corpse brought out
then another
another
black but hard
like worst quality coal
even in the explosion
these bodies felt no warmth
black smoke
brought these souls
from hell to heaven
in the land of the living
a cold wind has come
resources are lacking
we always need more
the crematorium has become one of the facilities
which keeps our country warm
white night
heart is all darkness
nothing seen
nothing heard
like a black cloth
over my eyes
and I’m longing
longing forever
for light
I told this
to a poet from Europe
she said that the people
in her land went mad
killed themselves sometimes
when days were too long
and too light
old horse
used to handlebars, pedestrians and cars
used not to running
dirty and flabby
skins like the dusk flayed
close to black night
the metal horse’s hooves
make a grassland track much longer
I sit inside a noisy pub
you’re there, head lowered
you’ve brought the big carriage
right up the slope
I don’t know how it’s said
in horse, but what I mean
to say’s just this:
‘old horse, let’s have a drink’
Translated by Agnes Vong and Christopher Kelen
