Poem

Fang Xianhai

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Original language

Ruins

I walk past the ruins
the roof has flown off
the me on the roof
is gone with them
a long time ago
I sat up there
born with a gift for flight
I sat in the shadow of birds
bulldozers roared past
the first joint
the first sex
the world was once
whole and complete for these

© Translation: 2009, Simon Patton and Guan Zhen

RUINS

© 2003, Fang Xianhai

Fang Xianhai

Fang Xianhai

Fang Xianhai was born on one of the Zhoushan Islands (he doesn\'t like to specify which) near the coastal city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province in November 1971. In 1999, he graduated in print-making from the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, but he developed his creative impulses in other directions, including both poetry and photography. His first poems were published in 2001 on the internet under th...

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Poems

Poems of Fang Xianhai

One day one month one year

Jottings made at 84 Longgu Road, Wuzhou

Ruins

Rot

Waiting for a phone call one afternoon

Difficulty

This work of art

I\'m a Sagittarian

The birds are dead now

In the school toilets

Close

Ruins

I walk past the ruins
the roof has flown off
the me on the roof
is gone with them
a long time ago
I sat up there
born with a gift for flight
I sat in the shadow of birds
bulldozers roared past
the first joint
the first sex
the world was once
whole and complete for these

© 2009, Simon Patton and Guan Zhen

Ruins

I walk past the ruins
the roof has flown off
the me on the roof
is gone with them
a long time ago
I sat up there
born with a gift for flight
I sat in the shadow of birds
bulldozers roared past
the first joint
the first sex
the world was once
whole and complete for these

© 2009, Simon Patton and Guan Zhen

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