PIECE OF ROCK HOPING ON A WING

             ——A Breathtaking Glimpse

An eagle, in its throes,

Stretching its sharp jaws over the lake

Its talons gripping the rock.

Two wings, desperate and stubborn

A grove of pines,

Trembling in the wind.

A piece of rock desperate for a pair of wings.

Hundreds of years or thousands of years,

Forever in an instant,

Crystallized into an instant,

One in its death throes.

One dream curdled into solid.

One sad epic fermented in the heart of a poet

Unwritten.

You, the inmate one second away from freedom

The existence one second away from death

The suffering that lasts thousands of years

On the opposite bank stands the Fairy Peak

Tranquility in awe of fate,

Her heart, a rock long long time ago.

She remains motionless,

Immobilized.

The eagle dreaming of flying again, can you?

When you break out of the fatal instant condensed

out of a millennium,

To be free requires a proper eagle’s behavior

In exchange.

You will vanish without a trace

Along with the death that serves as your jailor.

Your flight will intonate an earthquake

To bring about your downfall into the lake.

Your soul is the real eagle

Proudly flying over the Fairy Peak.

A CHURCH BUILT BY KING SAMOR 

On a hill close to the town of Ahlid, there stood a church associated with King Samor. A goatherd told us the church was never finished. A day’s work in building it ended up in a collapse at night.

A church without a roof top,

Stood in the wildness, a man without a cap.

I took off my cap to show my respect.

Speechless in front of it

I tried to recall the uproar of olden days.

The thunder and collapse.

Oh, only to bring completion to a statue.

For you, for me, for everybody

To reach each’s end to life.

One life from weak to strong

Yet at its most strongest

A crack in the rooftop of life!

A dynasty from birth to its apogee

Yet when it raises its cup for a toast,

One drop of wine seeps out of its veins.

I stand in awe of the church,

Which, mute and speechless, thunders into my head,

“There’s no eternity! No completion either!”

Perhaps this was the meaning of the church’s

muteness.

Mysterious, brief,

As old men age and a child grows up

“You fail more than you succeed!”

“Since you are born, you die!”

Silent, I stood in front of the church.

On the hill of Samor Citadel,

There stood a church never completed,

Which I took back to my oriental home, a poem

Since then, to be written again and again.

ONE NOTE IS PAST 

One note is past

Yet the melody is still in the air, the song

Still sung overhead.

A drop of water evaporates,

Breakers upon the cliff

The sea remains.

One pine leaf like a needle falls to the ground

Where mosses gather, yet the forest sings out

In praise of the sturdy pines.

One goose feather drops to the ground.

Autumn keeps the company of the geese flock

Flying southward.

A lamp dies out in the wind.

The village in the dark, dogs barking

In the distance.

One meteor flashing across the sky

So starry, as if

It has never reported a missing star.

One white hair is no more seen

One palm waving across the forehead, in search

Of the following lines:

Oh, one man is no more, we can’t take our minds

off his death

He lives in the days of our missing him

The days whisper in our ears: he is somewhere

awaiting.

（Translated by Huang Shaozheng）

——————

Ye Yanbin is a renowned Chinese poet and writer. In 1980, Ye, then a college student published a series of poems entitled Foster Mother, which won the CWA Poetry Award (1979—1980) and got him the membership of the Association. From 1982, Ye worked as was editor, deputy editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of The Star Poetry Monthly for 12 years. In 1994, he became the head of the literature and art department of Beijing Broadcasting Institute. In 1995, Ye worked as deputy editor-in-chief, executive deputy editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of the Poetry. He was a member of the 6th, 7th and 8th National Committee of CWA. Up to the present, Ye has published 49 books. Since 1980, his works have been seen in over 500 selections both home and abroad and some university and middle school textbooks. Some of his works have been translated into English, French, Russian, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Polish and Macedonian. Ye has won the first CWA Poetry Award (1979—1980), the 3rd CWA New Collection of Poems Award (1985—1986), and over 50 literature awards including the Sichuan Literature Award, October Literature Award and the Youth Literature Award. Ye currently is serving as director of the Poetry Committee of China Writers Association (CWA) and honorary member of the National Committee of CWA.

Click to enter the Chinese version