Issue #1 Winter 2002
Road
(Van Gogh: Road with Cypresses, 1890)
by Xue Di
(translated by Wang Ping & Keith Waldrop)
 |
The
workers are coming. Their blurred faces impress
on me the hardship of creation Locate
the roots of things My
breath flows through those roots as
if the flames of my whole body surged
up a cypress standing tall
Like
a road twisting in the soul’s uncertainty Pale
shell. Crying of wheat unsown The
human “past” shrill in the moonlight Seeds
sleeping in despair. The
“future” a
good horse. Where the road is open,
perfect necks break with the strain
Still
the bones of the cypress spit flames From
each drop of resin a squatting beast vaults
into the night, roars out starry stars.
Night is his vibrating gong His claws rake human faces |
©1995 Xue Di
Vincent Van Gogh, Road with Cypresses, 1890
Oil on Canvas, 92 x 73 cm
Xue Di was born in Beijing in 1957. He is the author of three volumes of
collected works in Chinese. In English translation, he
has published four books: An
Ordinary Day, Circumstances, Heart
into Soil, and Flames. His work has appeared in numerous American
journals and anthologies. Xue Di's work has been translated into English,
French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese. Since shortly after the Tiananmen
Square Massacre in 1989, he has been a fellow in Brown University's Freedom to
Write Program in Providence, Rhode Island. Xue Di is a two-time recipient of the
Hellman/Hammett Award, sponsored by Human Rights Watch.