An Instant Poem by Zhai Yongming

Stand here, just stand
and become one with the twilight spitting blood
take back the stained-black sun for me
as patient as death is this stone
spellbound, suddenly you know the sky is already far-off
at the last moment the stars pull out, until
the night is cast off and I fall silent
All the years are hijacked in an instant
you arrange the movements of the constellations and stars on my face
a silent sneer, as if sustaining a whipping
Endure this stretch of sky, smoother than the human body
more frigid than metal, only I
heard the ticking as dawn was breaking
a matchless moment of joy, a cold mood
as if harboring doubts about the air, one time it was dew
once it was night; up until I brush the evening aside
until I fall silent
Stand here, just stand
facing this cold, detached stone
and suddenly, at this instant, I experience painfully
its unknown divine nature
and during another dark night
indifferently, I become its counterfeit