Look at the Sunset
How large, how red the setting sun
blocked by a building, it shows only a rim
I run to the study window
to see its left half
I run to the kitchen window
to see its right half
I run to and fro in the room
thinking the sun also longs to peek at me
That Bouquet of White Flowers
that bouquet of white flowers
why so white
that bouquet of white flowers
isn't that white
just because at that instant
white was white's bottom line
white above black
Because There is Awakening
plainly for a few hours
the brain is empty
since when
even emptiness is gone
because there is awakening
I know that is sleep
insomnia was once
a small cache of weapons
wrestling in the edgeless dark
emptiness a fruit that life breeds painfully and finely
one after another
bridging together . . .
Three Poems
Yi Lu
translated from the Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain
Read the original in Chinese, Simplified
Listen to the poems performed in the original Chinese by Huang Yin-Nan:
Yi Lu is a theatre scenographer who leads a parallel life as a poet. Since the 1980s, she has established herself as one of the most widely read female poets in contemporary China. Born in 1956, she is the author of four books of poetry, including the national award-winning titles, See (2004) and Using Two Seas (2009). Her fifth volume, Forever Lingering, is forthcoming from the Cultural Art Press. She is known for her elegant and distilled lyrical voice, as well as her ecological awareness. Her poetry honors include the Hundred Flowers Award for Literature and the Distinguished Literary Prize from the Fujian Province. Currently serving as an active design artist at the People's Art Theatre in Fujian, she is also ranked as China's foremost theatrical stage and set designer. She lives in the southern coastal city of Fuzhou.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain writes and translates in English, French and Chinese. Her recent work includes translation of Auxeméry's Mingus, méditations (Estepa Editions, 2011), prose translations of Hai Zi (Tupelo Press, 2012) and Water the Moon (Marick Press, 2010), an Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award in 2011. Forthcoming: two books of translation of poetry by Bai Hua and Yu Xiang (both from Zephyr Press, 2012). A zheng concertist, she is a co-editor at Cerise Press and co-director of Vif éditions, an independent French publishing house in Paris. This is a link to her website.
