Banishment Poem by BEI Ling

Banished, I have left time behind
My arm, curved in the act of writing
Bent with the heaviness of memory
Is a bow aimed at this foreign sky
Blotting it out with the words of my country

The sky is untiring, endless
Its strength endures dry and stoic
Bringing pain I have no words for
Weight of memory imposed by winter

I see shame that refused to be forgotten
Planting a mission in my uncouth horizon
Reading ends with a distant gaze
Memory ignores the ringing bell
Each experience is weary of the next

This is not time's mistake
This is only time's mistake

Heavy and dark, the wheels of night
Grind the past into sand.
The deathless roots of things
Hold us in stubborn coils

I can wait in this banishment forever
It is not my shame
But a stain on the sky of my country

Translated by Bei Ling and Evelyn Toynton