Coal’s Reply
Ai Qing
Where do you live?
I live in ten thousand years of steep mountain
I live in ten thousand years of crag-rock
And your age?
My age is greater than the mountain’s
Greater than
Where do you live?
I live in ten thousand years of steep mountain
I live in ten thousand years of crag-rock
And your age?
My age is greater than the mountain’s
Greater than
A wall is like a knife
It slices a city in half
One half is on the east
The other half is on the west
How tall is this wall?
How
Snow falling on China’s land,
Cold is blocking China…
Wind,
Like a wailing old woman,
Closely following
The claws stretching with cold,
To clasp the clothes of passengers,
Endlessly prattling
In
One tree, another tree,
Each standing alone and erect.
The wind and air
Tell their distance apart.
But beneath the cover of earth
Their roots reach out
And at depths that
Dream’s friend
Illusion’s sister
Originally your shadow
Yet always in front of you
As formless as light
As restless as wind
Between you and her
She keeps her distance always
Like flying birds outside
If I were a bird,
I would also use my coarse throat to sing:
This land stricken by storms,
These rivers forever torrential with our indignation,
This wind ceaselessly blowing
With such agility in your movements,
Such buoyancy in your strength,
You leapt in the foam
And swam in the sea.
Unfortunately, a volcano’s eruption
Or perhaps an earthquake
Cost you
Da Yanhe, is my wet nurse.
Her name is the name of her village where she was born,
She is a childbride,
Da Yanhe, is my wet nurse.
I am a