Bei Dao
Poems from Bei DaoBei Dow – To Father
To Father In a chilly morning of February The oak has finally taken a grievous size Father, before your photograph The eight-direction wind retains the calmness of round tables I look from the perspective of childhood And always see you from behind...
Bei Dao – Black Map
Black Map in the end, cold crows piece together the night: a black map I've come home—the way back longer than the wrong road long as a life bring the heart of winter when spring water and horse pills become the words of night when memory barks a rainbow...
Bei Dao – Road Song
Road Song In the forgetting of tree and tree Is the dog’s lyric assault At the pointless journey’s endpoint Night turns all gold keys No door opens for you What a lantern abides by Are winter’s ancient laws I head straight for you The folding fans of...
Bei Dao – The Roses of Time
The Roses of Time When the gate guard sinks into sleep You turn back together with the storm That which ages in the embrace is The rose of time When the birds’ routes demarcate the sky You look backward at the sunset That which appears in the...
Bei Dao – Ramallah
Ramallah in Ramallah the ancients play chess in the starry sky the endgame flickers a bird locked in a clock jumps out to tell the time in Ramallah the sun climbs over the wall like an old man and goes through the market throwing mirror light on a rusted copper...
Bei Dao – Travel Diary
Travel Diary Before the fire-train enters the forest The snowstorm in the fire-extinguisher falls asleep You deign to listen to the past— Construction sites lit up by lamps: Hearts cut open in surgery Someone dingdang hammers away forging iron So feeble...