A Train of Fantasy and seven other poems
By Yi Nong
[author title=”Yi Nong ” image=”https://sindhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Yi-Nong-China-Sindh-Courier.jpg”]Yi Nong, pen name of Tao Shixiong, born in the 1970’s, is an outstanding poet in contemporary China. He is a member of Ningxia Writers Association, a director of Yinchuan Writers Association, a member of Suzhou Writers Association as well as a member of The Poetry Institute of China. Since his sophomore year of college, Yi Nong has embarked on the journey of poetry creation and publication on provincial-level journals. Altogether, he has about one thousand poems published at home and abroad in various newspapers, magazines and on new media platforms; some of his masterpieces find their way to scores of poem selections on both provincial and national levels. He has won literary awards. Yi Nong has published two anthologies of poetry: Crow’s Feet and Stone in the Flow of Time, both entering the “Digital database of Chinese writers’ literary works”. [/author]
A Train of Fantasy
From behind a half-open ticket window
A hand with no warmth
Hands out a number marker of Destiny
Standing, sitting, lying on front or on back
Is never up to me
The train now speeds up, now slows down
So fast that flowers bloom and instantly fade
So slow that on the journey the passengers’ hair and beard turn hoary
Some travel alone, some travel accompanied
Some stick around, some part company as strangers
Upon waking up from my dream, I only remember the conductor’s
Whisper in my ear:
Life is—
Myriads of get-togethers
Followed by myriads of
Good-byes
______________
Imprisonment
The so-called freedom
Is nothing but
A momentary
Illusion
When you look up into the sky
Upon jumping
Out of a small circle
Into a bigger one
___________________
Grief is a Luxury
After listening to
Tchaikovsky’s
Pathétique Symphony
I open my widow
Only to see beneath a street lamp
A snow-white flock
Of ingenuous lambs
Are being whipped
To hasten towards
A quiet
Slaughter-
House
Across the street
______________
Hitler
A conflagration swept from the west to the east
From the south to the north
Scorching the earth for seven years
Killing 90 million
A single sparkle
Tends to be blown out by a waft of breeze
But sometimes, the sparkle happens to fall onto a powder keg
And thus empowered to transform, or even—
Destroy the whole
World
___________________
In the Grand Hall of Sakyamuni
Amid the curling smoke of burning incense
Amid the murmurs of chanting sutras
The general kneels down, so does the convict
The beggar kneels down, so does the thief
The whore kneels down, so does the hawker
Even the emperor and his ministers kneel down too
While kneeling down amid the crowd
I have an epiphany: the greatness of Buddha
Lies not in that He is beyond the multitudes
But in that He never divides
Those praying for blessings and those repenting
Into general, convict, thief
Whore, hawker
Or king
Or minister
_______________
Gods
From the south to the north
From the Occident to the Orient
Scattered on the earth, there are innumerous
Vaulted, or flat-ceilinged
Red, brown or white
Big or small, new
Or old temples, churches or mosques
That house one God or Gods
Who’d with great patience teach us?
These restless sparrows gazing around
How to perch quietly
And leisurely
Upon the twig of Fate
That keeps swaying
Now up and down, now to and fro
________________
Transmigration
I want to be restful
But the wind is restless
I just want to grow
More leaves
Later I discover, one leaf the less
The more relaxed I should feel
And after a whole season of losing leaves
I should grow up a little bit
But why do I
Have countless
Leaves
To lose
______________
The Axe
With sinews severed
Bones broken and bark peeled
Some blocks of wood should conspire with man
To fell
Their kin who are
Still standing
______________
Translated by Wang Changling. She teaches at the School of Foreign Studies, Anhui Normal University, who has co-compiled Advanced English Course (2019) and published around ten papers about literature and translation. She has published several English versions of Chinese essays in Chinese Translators Journal and English Language Learning and co-translated several books. She has been awarded twice for excellent translation. Her motto: I translate, therefore I am. To her, poetry is what redeems the soul.
