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Poetry

December 2nd, 1997, at Night

By Xiao Kaiyu
Translated from Chinese by Alistair Noon

A blizzard lures us toward Poland,
bringing us almost to the border.
We should have turned north at Dresden, instead
headed due East, to halt in open farmland
whose sound is the lightest of rumbles.
Later, filling up in a prison town,
I realize we never noticed
the Chopin on the radio.

English

A blizzard lures us toward Poland,
bringing us almost to the border.
We should have turned north at Dresden, instead
headed due East, to halt in open farmland
whose sound is the lightest of rumbles.
Later, filling up in a prison town,
I realize we never noticed
the Chopin on the radio.

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