Ten Thousand Waves by Wang Ping

Author:Wang Ping
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wings Press
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Wild Pheasant

Venus points to the mid-sky moon

My path is drenched with silvery dew

A wild pheasant calls from a blue house terrace

Red are my lips, dark is love

Painted phoenix cannot fly

Pain in my heart has no tongue

I was a daughter of yellow earth

You were a son of the mountains and ravines

Two small children with bowl-cut hairdos

We played without shame or suspicion

At twenty, Mother opened my face with silk thread

A red sedan carried me to your new cave

Three nights after, you set off for the coast

I grabbed your sleeves, hugged your neck

Why did you bother to marry me if you had to leave so soon

You dragged your feet—two steps forward, three steps back

Bride and groom, three days new

How our tears broke like partridge eggs

Venus sinks to the west, leaning on the moon

My path makes no sound under wet moss

A wild pheasant calls from a blue house window

Come, my angels, rest your souls at my perfumed feet

Pairs of toads leap in the spring

Our love song echoes ravine to ravine

At the end of the road, I took out my needle

And sewed my heart into your shirt

Go, my lover, don’t look back

If you’re hungry, there’s bread in the sack

Heat your meals and cover your belly

Don’t forget your bride, don’t pick flowers along the road

I’ll plough the fields, care for our parents

My door will be locked till you return

With a cartful of grain

Venus shines—lighthouse for stars

Along my path, shadows scurry in dim alleys

A wild pheasant calls from the blue house eaves

Short is my skirt, tender as my scented sleeves

Terraces are ploughed by buffaloes

This world is seeded with sorrow

My love, you’re a mud ox sunk in the sea

Nothing returns since you left me

I call heaven and earth

But who will hear, who will see

Only tears drip from a crushed heart

A lone shadow hovers over the well

Venus weeps on the blue house roof

At dawn my path crowds with sleepless souls

A pheasant calls under the Old White Star

Long is my hair, tangled love in the teeth of fate

Ten thousand geese fly north

Ten thousand letters wait for a home

Once mating, Mandarin ducks never part

My herd boy, six years is too long without you

Some rule with slogans, some reign with commercials

But who will give back my husband

Let us raise the young, grow old in peace

Roaming from city to city

I ask your name to women, paint your face to thousands of men

Whatever happened, I must find you

Alive, I’ll drag you to Mother’s knees

Our five-year-old son you’ve never seen

Dead, I’ll take your bones in cloth, rest them

Next to your father, wine and incense to light your path

The moon has completed her journey

From darkness to darkness I linger

A wild pheasant calls with a splintered throat

Gold Star of Venus, please shine your light on my path

I’m a pheasant, or a spittoon filled with cigarette butts

My flesh rots beneath powder and rouge

But the fire has never died in my temple

Love is there if you see it—

Dewdrops of faith bejeweling its upturned eaves

Do not move

Let birds stir in their nests

Let pheasants—fairies from this tattered earth—

Carry the sun in

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.