Ode to June

Abstract

Ode to June Pang Pei (bio) Translated by Ming Di and Frank Stewart Tranquility spills across the morninglike the dawn light, dispersing among the trees,spreading like birds whose calls are solemnlytending the silence. People huddling in a black abyssare waiting for the whiteness of day to breakThey are waiting and fightingOnly one person at a timeis allowed to see dawn’s lightto have the door opento have briefly only one bookof the countless books buried in the dust.When the door finally opensthe light pushing inis like the gaze of a dead soul.The promised offer is like a bird’s leapingonto a tree branchas if the survivors don’t have a bodyto take the bullets— That’s the tranquility of Junefrom the beginning of the month to the endfrom an instant to an eternal moment—all in the vibrating air outside the jail. Then, summer is hereThe throat is choked by the bloody waterthat seeps into the soil [End Page 186] in the wilderness of quietly growing bushesalong the riverbanks.Tranquility. The sound of waves beating the shore.Tranquility. The sound of the woman leavinglike water receding The whole morning, and the whole summerthe woods are full of shadows, a death squadof those young people. Wings of hours push open the windows and doorsof the dwelling place of birdsas if freedom is a blue sky without white cloudsand youth is youth without kneeling downto petition to be free. 2019 [End Page 187] Pang Pei Pang Pei was born in Suying, Jiangsu province. He is the author of several collections of poetry and prose, including Whisper (1998), Book of Melancholy (2000), Three-Quarter Rain (2009), and Various Verses (2011). He received the Liu Li’an Poetry Prize and the Rougang Poetry Award. Copyright © 2019 University of Hawai‘i Press