Three Poems

Abstract

Xiao An (b. 1964) is often regarded as a “poet’s poet” in China. One of the few women in the experimental poetry group feifei, meaning “neither/ nor,” she has been working as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital for twenty years while steadily publishing poetry. Her writing is influenced by classical Chinese poetry but has a contemporary feel in its themes and sensibility. Anna Sun is a scholar of Chinese religion and author of Confucianism as a World Religion. Her essays on literature have appeared in the Kenyon Review and London Review of Books. Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of twenty books or plays. His translations include Earthlight, by André Breton, which received the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award. A Believer She spoke about being in heaven while we talked all night long Though it was raining that night she dwelt in the warm house of God But where was I? That evening when we were face-to-face – the voices of two people At least she was in heaven for a while It was pouring rain all around us but her hair never got wet or her fingers It was as if when I was there that night the door of God’s house always stood open Translations from the Chinese By Anna Sun & Zack Rogow POETRY Three Poems by Xiao An Watching the Moonrise Alone Watching the moonrise alone the silent moon is like the person watching They’re alone together No one utters a single word The passage of time is like the journey of the moon across the sky It moves further and further away until the sky is completely empty Move the Stone to Someone Else’s Heart Where is the unknown remedy that can lift from my heart this huge stone For three hundred and seventy-two days I’ve tried to push it away But nothing moves it to someone else’s heart MOON PHOTO: LUCA IONELLI/UNSPLASH WORLDLIT.ORG 21 ...