Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Poetry

Since

By Yang Lian
Translated from Chinese by Brian Holton & Agnes Hung-Chong Chan

since the undated neglected foul blood’s due date
since the year fell off a bed’s edge edged you out
since conceiving evil itself conceived

what wraps two dripping fruit segments wraps a present too
since solitude became your food
name turns you into your own tenant

since those turning their back on age turned back to a birthday
since the nookied cloud sat on a naked spiral stair
dazzlingly blue sex of a tigress surged to your sex

countless sunken ships show their masts above the town’s sea surface
since anchors of survival hooked onto the forehead
corpses have been pulling a net

since the soul that pressed you so hard pressed so near night at four p.m.
since the dark green meadow has filled with a white horse’s bitter jealousy
since having lived like impure death lived

name turns you into your own tenant
directions always patted off a dirty pillow
bad dreams dreaming the limit of four limbs

a flesh-colored ATM drawer draws again the you of now
the gleaming fish of an ambulance carries away your now
since every minute abandons those in the minute of childbirth

from now to now broken bones in a thumb joint a far journey
since rape could never end
since your illness projected an endless you

life trains people to love the shame dearly
since destruction set off from far away to return to your own destruction
a tooth not refusing to be buried refuses the theme of time

English

since the undated neglected foul blood’s due date
since the year fell off a bed’s edge edged you out
since conceiving evil itself conceived

what wraps two dripping fruit segments wraps a present too
since solitude became your food
name turns you into your own tenant

since those turning their back on age turned back to a birthday
since the nookied cloud sat on a naked spiral stair
dazzlingly blue sex of a tigress surged to your sex

countless sunken ships show their masts above the town’s sea surface
since anchors of survival hooked onto the forehead
corpses have been pulling a net

since the soul that pressed you so hard pressed so near night at four p.m.
since the dark green meadow has filled with a white horse’s bitter jealousy
since having lived like impure death lived

name turns you into your own tenant
directions always patted off a dirty pillow
bad dreams dreaming the limit of four limbs

a flesh-colored ATM drawer draws again the you of now
the gleaming fish of an ambulance carries away your now
since every minute abandons those in the minute of childbirth

from now to now broken bones in a thumb joint a far journey
since rape could never end
since your illness projected an endless you

life trains people to love the shame dearly
since destruction set off from far away to return to your own destruction
a tooth not refusing to be buried refuses the theme of time

Read Next

A pile of sunflower seeds on a platform in front of a brown background