Poem

Yan Jun

Side by side

January 13

The new year’s bus
shines in the sunlight   the dust shines too

the crows have no eyes
iron’s leaves    the hearts inside of stones

last year   the year before   pale blue shoulders
slide toward the next wave

13 JANUARI

In de zon glimt de bus
van het nieuwe jaar, glimt het stof

Kraaien zonder ogen
Boombladen van staal, harten in steen

Een jaar geleden. Twee jaren terug.
Lichtblauwe schouders glijden
neer op de volgende golf

Yan Jun

(China, 1973)

In recent years, the poet and musician Yan Jun has been writing mainly diary poems and explications of aspects of contemporary China, along with allusions to classical subject matter. One feature of Yan Jun’s poetry is its vitality and rapid turnover of images, one following on rhythmically from the other. In ‘Charter Sonnet’, for instance, each line begins urgently with the repeated phras...

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Poems of Yan Jun

January 13

The new year’s bus
shines in the sunlight   the dust shines too

the crows have no eyes
iron’s leaves    the hearts inside of stones

last year   the year before   pale blue shoulders
slide toward the next wave

January 13

The new year’s bus
shines in the sunlight   the dust shines too

the crows have no eyes
iron’s leaves    the hearts inside of stones

last year   the year before   pale blue shoulders
slide toward the next wave