I Held My Wrist, Lamenting, Facing the Magpie…
On my life journey
More than once
I held my wrist
Lamenting
–Facing the magpie
Should have become a snake
Or a dragon
Instead
–An eagle
Should have become the sea
Or the cliff
Instead
–A cloud
Should have become honey
Or bitter
Liquor
Instead
Conflicted between
Loving and not loving
–A man
Life choices
Are like birds
–Unconstrained
Free
Also a hailstorm
–Sudden
Harsh
Should have become my native soil
Or an orange tree
Instead
Silent footsteps
–Exiled
Lonesome
In My Lifetime…
…I want to encounter one earthquake
One war and two or three imprisonments
On an unnamed square boulevard
A smile from a woman dressed in blue
I want to drink two or three cups of coffee or tea
One bottle of liquor and countless bottles of beer
And also taste the kisses said to be harmful to the heart
Paying the price with my youth and a couple of love poems
When I am thirty I want to marry and have a family
Let my beloved feel happy, let children
(If they could really come out into the world)
Remember their irresponsible father
I want to get up early one time to see the rosy clouds of dawn
Speak out loudly in French: “Bonjour”
I want to stay on the balcony for one whole day
I want to idly scratch my head
Life and Crisis
What is dreamt is still the crisis ten years ago
Life, yet remains the present life
Two factors as if deliberately twisted together
By a marriage
I remember, a winter night
Crisis was like a dormant volcano capped by snow
Directly facing the open window, second floor of a hotel
Where a couple was on their honeymoon
Don’t know whether it was for
The people indoors to look out
Or for the volcano outside to peek in
Alas, an empty street where
No chariot runs is like
A moist dawn deserted by sounds
Let me speak out for you from the bottom of your heart
Life perhaps will be gone like tides
Crisis, like the moon, will forever stay
Regained Knowledge
I recognized my dog
He was waiting for me
I threw him a fake coin
He sniffed, but didn’t pick it up
He was moist under his body
Like so many years ago
When I left him
And my native land
In various dreams
He was different things
Even a string of letters of fire
I could hardly decipher
He was using his paws
Scratching the foundations buried in earth
He wasn’t looking at me
Because I was looking at him
Toward him I had
All kinds of gentle affection
Such affection hidden until today
Could only be deeper
I wanted to caress his
Already hardened fur
Holding his frozen head
Closely to my cheek
And I recalled all
Those whom I once loved
And who once embraced me
As if night regaining its gold
The above four poems are translated into English by the author
