SUMMER 07 Featured Writer: Huang Xiang

Listening to Mountains from Behind Iron Bars

鐵窗聼山

In the eyes
a single
bird
overhead
a puffy
cloud
on the lips
a drop of
water
lonely toes
split open
stone-chiseled
thoughts
a
clear
note
nobody hears
drips
drops
a simple moment
after
a
single
glance

1989

Writing Freely

性情書寫

A heavy
brush
in hand
is like
a big trailing
mop
walking
nakedly
across the spacious paper of life
footprints of thick ink
in swift strokes
some deep, some light along the way
one after the other
releasing
lightening rods
of semen and blood

2003

A Wandering Soul

-In memory of Wang Ruowang, writer of conscience

漂泊之魂

For a long time
early every morning
the old man would say to his wife
Little Lamb
don't leave me
I'm scared
I'm scared of
being alone
A man with the hardest bones
whispered the weakest words
from the sickbed
before he passed
away
You left
with two empty hands
out of which
sunlight tumbled
as hefty as gold nuggets
in the eyes of the world
You could no longer grasp anything
not the fog-dampened
birdsongs, not even the crying of your
sons and daughters who had rushed
to your bedside
You are gone
No more will another man
say to me
I'm scared
No more
will an old man wander alone
living in dejection
like finding himself on a planet
completely uninhabited
No more will there be a second
a third...
O Lord
let the first be the last
give us no more a skeleton
its flesh stripped by
the crocodile of indifference
or chilling loneliness
like a block of ice
too hard to smash
no more
no more

2001

Poets of the East

東方詩人

1. Qu Yuan

This man
Jumped into the Miluo River
And completed
A model of immutability

A moment of
Eternity

He set poetry in motion
In ever-widening circles

Of
Golden
Ripples

 

2. Ruan Ji

In life
He drove a carriage aimlessly
Under the sky

His howls rendered silences
In pain
And freely left imprints
Of bloody trails

 

3. Tao Yuanming

The chrysanthemums by the fence
Unthinking, he picked a flower of
Faraway reclusion

 

4. Wang Wei

The teapot brings the emerald quiet to a boil
The spout pours the gentle tolling of bells

 

5. Zheng Banqiao

The mind at ease, so is the body
On an ordinary day he dips into
A pool of carefreeness
From the tip of the brush he shakes off
Howling winds and rustling bamboos

While alive
He surrounded himself with bamboos
And planted serenity on fine rice paper
When he passed away
He slept alone in a painted tomb
Taking his usual walks
In the bamboo shade of dreams

2000

Translator's Notes

Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BCE) was a highborn minister in the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States period. Slandered by evil courtiers, he was banished by the king to the hinterlands, where he composed beautiful poetry. Unable to convince the king of his innocence and loyalty, he threw himself into the Miluo River. To protect his body from being eaten by the fish, the local people threw zongzi-boiled rice wrapped in bamboo leaves-into the water to feed the fish.

Ruan Ji (210-263) was one of the ‘Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove,' a group of eccentrics who rejected conventions and embraced Daoist philosophy. A heavy drinker, Ruan would wander around in a carriage everyday; he instructed his boy servant who accompanied him that should he die from over-drinking during one of his outings, he should bury him where he (quite literally) dropped dead.

One of the most beloved poets of China, Tao Yuanming (365-427) resigned from a government post to live the simple life of a farmer-recluse. He is famous for his love of wine and the chrysanthemum flower.

Wang Wei (699-761) is well-known for his monochrome landscape painting and nature poetry underscored by Buddhist and Daoist philosophy.

Zheng Banqiao (1693-1765), one of the ‘Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou' in the early Qing period, is famous for his painting (especially of orchid and bamboo), poetry, and calligraphy.

© Huang Xiang 2005 and 2007
Translation copyright Michelle Yeh, 2005