THE NAIL THAT PIERCES THE SKY 

shielded at all times by a hat it never

stands out from the wall until the hat begins to rot and falls

many years ago the movement which had knocked it into the wall

seemingly ended just now a minuscule and silent shard of metal

exposed on the wall, its bald head penetrating the sunlight

entering into keenness it had never previously possessed

there it not only penetrated sunlight

but also pierced the room and its sky

the concrete nail thrusts deeply

with its bald head from the factual deep side

it stabbed toward the empty side the shallow side

this kind of entry coincides so well with the sky

and tallies so well with the ordinary heart

the nail that pierces the sky

sharp expansive its radiance shoots in all directions

as a monarch who has just ascended the throng

RIVERS 

there are many rivers in the mountains where I grew up

in deep gorges they flow

they rarely catch a glimpse of sky

there are no expansive sails hoisted high over their surfaces

nor huge flocks of river gulls drawn on by boat-songs

it爷s only when you爷ve climbed endless ridges and hills

that you hear this river sound

it爷s only on rafts made of great tree-trunks lashed together

that you dare ride upon these waves

some areas will stay forever unknown to humankind

the freedom of those places belongs to the eagles alone

in the rainy season the waters turn brutal

gale winds on the high plateau push boulders down into valleys

mud dyes the rivers red

as if the mountains were actually bleeding

only when it爷s calm

do you see the plateau爷s bulging veins

those people who live on either side of these rivers

may never come to know of one another爷s existence

but wherever you go in the place I grew up in

you will here people talking about these rivers

as if discussing their gods 

(Tr. by Simon Patton)

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Yu Jian （1954- ）, a native of Kunming, the representative poet of the "Them" poetry group in the 1980s , Published poetry collections include Sixty Poems, The Naming of a Crow, Poems of Yu Jian, A Nail That Picrccs the Sky (Taibei), Poetry Events (Dutch Edition) ,Flight(Spanish)，Collceted Notes,etc.

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