A Communist in Hong Kong

The apparition of these faces in the crowd XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX— Ezra Pound Chinese schoolgirls dressed all in white Ivory pawns on a chessboard Mirrors hung in a pool of light The raised faces of Chinese girls A vein of quartz running through rock The white necks of Chinese women The swaying hips of Chinese girls Ticking … Continue reading A Chinese Woman

There’s the hill on which, fifty years past, I crashed my bike, swerving — said the driver Who put us both in the back of his car — Towards the road. Towards the trees! — I lied, Nursing my grazed elbows and knees. My dad Didn’t listen, and grounded me for a week For the … Continue reading Dolce Domum

Sitting in a Hong Kong cemetery Reading to the dead Chinese poetry In translation by an American Who calls lorries ‘trucks’, petrol ‘gas’ and Motorways ‘highways’ — to Hell or Heaven? Alas, America! America, Alas! What have you done to my language, My culture, my nation, this warring world? What evil has not sprung from … Continue reading Alas, America!

Something like my age (though with Chinese women It’s hard to tell), her black hair still silky And tied in a bun from which every luxury Had been wrung. But her hands, small and rubbed raw, Told me that her age were better measured Not in years lived but in decades of labour. She wore … Continue reading Mass Transit Railway

On the street of poetry and letters Young men pursue the spell of poetry Writing lines that will end in poverty On the street of poetry and letters Thoughts like towers rise upward to the stars Each door and stairwell blocked with iron bars On the street of poetry and letters Old men like dragons … Continue reading The Street of Poetry and Letters

Perform the Peacock Dance of the Dai People at an International Cultural Festival in the United States of America When pleasure is greatest, sorrow follows.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX— Tu Fu On seeing her perform I thought:So this is why god made women!Why men who don’t know how to be menWant to but can never be them;Why we, unsexed, … Continue reading On Seeing a Chinese Student