I am currently reading Over Autumn Rooftops, a collection of poems by Hai Zi translated by Dan Murphy. I consider myself lucky to have chanced up or discovered him.
Here are some poems by the wonderfu poet:
The Arles Sun*
- for my emaciated brother
"All the things I have created in nature are chestnuts snatched from the fire. Oh! Those who do not believe in the sun betray God." **
go south
go south
your blood, without lovers or springtime
without the moon
there isn't even enough bread
friends even scarcer
only a throng of suffering children, gobbling up everything
my emaciated brother, Van Gogh, Van Gogh...
from beneath the earth vigorously spurting forth
like a volcano with no thought for the results
cypresses and wheat fields
and you
spurting forth your remaining time
just one of your eyes could illuminate the world
but you use your third eye, the Arles sun
to burn the starry sky into a crude river
to burn the earth into its rotation
raising your yellowed spasmodic hand, sunflowers
inviting all those who have pulled chestnuts from the fire
not to paint again Christ's olive garden
if you must paint, paint the reaping of olives
paint a violent ball of fire
to substitute for the father of heaven
washing life clean
red-haired brother, drinking up the absinthe
you light this fire
burn
*Arles is a small town in southern France where Van Gogh created 70 or 80 paintngs during the most brilliant period in his career.
**The two sentences in the quote above are apparently taken from two separate letters Van Gogh wrote to hs brother Theo.
~
from In Requiem Mozart says
"in the wheat fields please
sort through my bones
like bunches of reed catkins
...pack them into the box of my violin and carry them back..."
~
Peach Blossoms
on a cart golden in the light of dawn
blood-red, exploded open
bastard daughters of the sun
blood slowly flowing
like the inside of some revolutionary group
a machete, savage and desolate on the grasslands
Here are some poems by the wonderfu poet:
The Arles Sun*
- for my emaciated brother
"All the things I have created in nature are chestnuts snatched from the fire. Oh! Those who do not believe in the sun betray God." **
go south
go south
your blood, without lovers or springtime
without the moon
there isn't even enough bread
friends even scarcer
only a throng of suffering children, gobbling up everything
my emaciated brother, Van Gogh, Van Gogh...
from beneath the earth vigorously spurting forth
like a volcano with no thought for the results
cypresses and wheat fields
and you
spurting forth your remaining time
just one of your eyes could illuminate the world
but you use your third eye, the Arles sun
to burn the starry sky into a crude river
to burn the earth into its rotation
raising your yellowed spasmodic hand, sunflowers
inviting all those who have pulled chestnuts from the fire
not to paint again Christ's olive garden
if you must paint, paint the reaping of olives
paint a violent ball of fire
to substitute for the father of heaven
washing life clean
red-haired brother, drinking up the absinthe
you light this fire
burn
*Arles is a small town in southern France where Van Gogh created 70 or 80 paintngs during the most brilliant period in his career.
**The two sentences in the quote above are apparently taken from two separate letters Van Gogh wrote to hs brother Theo.
~
from In Requiem Mozart says
"in the wheat fields please
sort through my bones
like bunches of reed catkins
...pack them into the box of my violin and carry them back..."
~
Peach Blossoms
on a cart golden in the light of dawn
blood-red, exploded open
bastard daughters of the sun
blood slowly flowing
like the inside of some revolutionary group
a machete, savage and desolate on the grasslands
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