Bei Dao Poems

a child carrying flowers walks toward the new year
a conductor tattooing darkness
listens to the shortest pause
...

Debasement is the password of the base,
Nobility the epitaph of the noble.
See how the gilded sky is covered
...

I want to go to the other bank

The river water alters the sky's colour
and alters me
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Lovers holding pits in their mouths
make vows and delight in each other
till the underwater infant
periscopes his parents
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wolves of music weave their way at a run
hawthorns wheeze with clandestine laughter

turning a new leaf, tide's out
...

for Shanshan
The wave of that year
flooded the sands on the mirror
to be lost is a kind of leaving
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a sower walks into the great hall
it's war out there, he says
and you awash in emptiness
you've sworn off your duty to sound the alarm
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in Ramallah
the ancients play chess in the starry sky
the endgame flickers
a bird locked in a clock
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at the end of a perfect day
those simple people looking for love
left scars on twilight
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Waking up: the northern pine forest—
The urgent drum beats of the earth
The alcohol of sunlights stored in the tree trunks
Is stirring the ice of darkness
...