3 poems from The Rose of Time: New and Selected Poems by Bei Dao
UNTITLED
Stretch out your hands to me
don't let the world blocked by my shoulder
disturb you any longer
if love is not forgotten
hardship leaves no memory
remember what I say
not everything will pass
if there is only one last aspen
standing tall at the end of the road
like a gravestone without an epitaph
the falling leaves will also speak
fading paling as they tumble
slowly they freeze over
holding our heavy footprints
of course, no one knows tomorrow
tomorrow begins from another dawn
when we will be fast asleep
~
DECLARATION
for Yu Luoke
Perhaps the final hour is come
I have left no testament
Only a pen, for my mother
I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man
The still horizon
Divides the ranks of the living and the dead
I can only choose the sky
I will not kneel on the ground
Allowing the executioners to look tall
The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
From star-like bullet holes shall flow
A blood-red dawn
~
COMPOSITION
stars in the stream and stops at the source
diamond rain
is ruthlessly dissecting
the glass world
it opens the sluice, opens
a woman's lips
pricked on a man's arm
opens the book
the words have decomposed, the ruins
have imperial integrity
http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Time-Bilingual-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811218481/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296543172&sr=1-1
UNTITLED
Stretch out your hands to me
don't let the world blocked by my shoulder
disturb you any longer
if love is not forgotten
hardship leaves no memory
remember what I say
not everything will pass
if there is only one last aspen
standing tall at the end of the road
like a gravestone without an epitaph
the falling leaves will also speak
fading paling as they tumble
slowly they freeze over
holding our heavy footprints
of course, no one knows tomorrow
tomorrow begins from another dawn
when we will be fast asleep
~
DECLARATION
for Yu Luoke
Perhaps the final hour is come
I have left no testament
Only a pen, for my mother
I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man
The still horizon
Divides the ranks of the living and the dead
I can only choose the sky
I will not kneel on the ground
Allowing the executioners to look tall
The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
From star-like bullet holes shall flow
A blood-red dawn
~
COMPOSITION
stars in the stream and stops at the source
diamond rain
is ruthlessly dissecting
the glass world
it opens the sluice, opens
a woman's lips
pricked on a man's arm
opens the book
the words have decomposed, the ruins
have imperial integrity
http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Time-Bilingual-Directions-Paperbook/dp/0811218481/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296543172&sr=1-1
RSS Feed