Poem
Zhang Zao
The Infinite
Top floor, language lab.Autumn arrives with a bang,
its radiance puts the universe’s new glass in all four walls;
everyone’s wearing headphones, expressions of jade solidarity.
The pregnant teacher also listens in. The treasured relics of
slurred sound:
“evening paper, evening paper”, the magnetic tape whizzing in around the globe.
Anxious words, unwilling to pass away, like streetscapes
and fountains, like visitors from outer space entrenched on some border
fondling sunset glow before abruptly releasing a bolt of brocade beauty:
the void is no more than a flower!
She looks at the surrounding
new situation—a loom in everyone’s mouth,
now murmuring exactly the same
fine story.
Everyone’s immersed in their listening,
everyone’s organs exposed, working
completely unawares.
© Translation: 2003, Simon Patton
From: Unpublished
From: Unpublished
THE INFINITE
© 1998, Zhang Zao
From: Chun-qiu lai xin
Publisher: Wenhua yishu chubanshe, Beijing
From: Chun-qiu lai xin
Publisher: Wenhua yishu chubanshe, Beijing
Poems
Poems of Zhang Zao
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The Infinite
Top floor, language lab.Autumn arrives with a bang,
its radiance puts the universe’s new glass in all four walls;
everyone’s wearing headphones, expressions of jade solidarity.
The pregnant teacher also listens in. The treasured relics of
slurred sound:
“evening paper, evening paper”, the magnetic tape whizzing in around the globe.
Anxious words, unwilling to pass away, like streetscapes
and fountains, like visitors from outer space entrenched on some border
fondling sunset glow before abruptly releasing a bolt of brocade beauty:
the void is no more than a flower!
She looks at the surrounding
new situation—a loom in everyone’s mouth,
now murmuring exactly the same
fine story.
Everyone’s immersed in their listening,
everyone’s organs exposed, working
completely unawares.
© 2003, Simon Patton
From: Unpublished
From: Unpublished
The Infinite
Top floor, language lab.Autumn arrives with a bang,
its radiance puts the universe’s new glass in all four walls;
everyone’s wearing headphones, expressions of jade solidarity.
The pregnant teacher also listens in. The treasured relics of
slurred sound:
“evening paper, evening paper”, the magnetic tape whizzing in around the globe.
Anxious words, unwilling to pass away, like streetscapes
and fountains, like visitors from outer space entrenched on some border
fondling sunset glow before abruptly releasing a bolt of brocade beauty:
the void is no more than a flower!
She looks at the surrounding
new situation—a loom in everyone’s mouth,
now murmuring exactly the same
fine story.
Everyone’s immersed in their listening,
everyone’s organs exposed, working
completely unawares.
© 2003, Simon Patton
From: Unpublished
From: Unpublished
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