The New Year…and Crows!
Posted: January 23, 2012 Filed under: Chinese (Mandarin), English Comments Off on The New Year…and Crows!January 2
I thought I wanted to say something
I looked at the snow then went back to the desk
Or perhaps I counted money or perhaps I did laundry
Crows flew in the suburbs flew by the front door
I waited quietly
like a hotpot in winter
There won’t be any more discounted plane tickets
I waited to sacrifice myself and then it was the new year
*
January 13
The new year’s bus
shines in the sunlight the dust shines too
the crows have no eyes
iron’s leaves the hearts inside of stones
last year the year before pale blue shoulders
slide toward the next wave
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© Yan Jun
Translations: © 2010, 2011,
Ao Wang and Eleanor Goodman
Special Thanks to PIW
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Editor’s note:
Yan Jun’s “new year” in these two poems
appears to be of the Western – not the
Lunar/Chinese – Calendar. But we have
posted them this Chinese New Year’s Day
(January 23rd) so as to contrast them
with Mao Zedong’s poem “New Year’s Day”.
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Zócalo Poets 