Requiem

By Bei Dao b. 1949 Bei Dao

Translated By Eliot Weinberger and Iona Man-Cheong

for Shanshan

The wave of that year

flooded the sands on the mirror

to be lost is a kind of leaving

and the meaning of leaving

the instant when all languages

are like shadows cast from the west

life's only a promise

don't grieve for it

before the garden was destroyed

we had too much time

debating the implications of a bird flying

as we knocked down midnight's door

alone like a match polished into light

when childhood's tunnel

led to a vein of dubious ore

to be lost is a kind of leaving

and poetry rectifying life

rectifies poetry's echo

Source: Unlock (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2000)

Biography

Bei Dao is the nom de plume of Zhao Zhenkai, widely considered one of China’s most important contemporary authors. His poems have been translated into more than 30 languages. In English he is represented by numerous collections of poetry, fiction, and essays, including The August Sleepwalker, Old Snow, Unlock, Landscape over Zero, Midnight’s Gate, and Waves, which have been internationally acclaimed for their subtlety, . . .

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