Those masters are not arranging the flowers,but placing the spring in full bloom!
[author title=”Chen Bolai” image=”https://sindhcourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Chen-Bolai-China-Poet-SindhCourier.jpg”]Chen Bolai, was born in Guizhou Province in 1965 and now lives in Haikou city of Hainan Province. He’s a lawyer, member of China Writers’ Association; one of the first contract poets of Hainan Provincial Academy of Literature and winner of Top-10 Poets Award in 2017 held by Modern Youth Periodical. He once attended the 16th National Prose Poetry Club and studied at the Poetry Advanced Study Class of Luxun Academy of Literature. He has published 4 collections of poems “Breaking: 1985-1995” (1999), “No Breaking” (2017), “Between the Mountains and the Sea“ (2017, prose poems), and “Selected Poems of Chen Bolai” (2018, Chinese-English version).[/author]
ART OF FLOWER ARRANGEMENT
Those masters
Are not arranging the flowers,
But placing the spring in full bloom!
Or they are not placing the spring,
But seem to play with fingers of flowers.
Flowers are contrarily placed by the spring
Into a vase!
On the vase surface two butterflies fly
Taking the time
As they profoundly did before!
Or, it is nothing at all.
The heaven’s got elder and elder.
At the time of vase breaking,
A flower of heart gets exhilarated,
Regardless of the spring!
A RED HORSE
In summer, a red horse
Is crossing, the sharp clop hits
The suffering heart, the sunshine
On the skin in summer carries cracks and shadow.
At the wrinkle of glimmer,
The ring of time gets lost at the edge,
Ball prone to break inside, even a tree or grove
Fails keeping the complete shadow!
All is because of the sharp clop,
Hitting the suffering heart!
It is summer now. Before the approaching of
Silent autumn,
A red horse is crossing,
A red horse is crossing,
From the burning heart
To the suffering heart!
SINCERITY
You don’t need to tap me
Or tell the second sentence, or even
The second word, the autumn still holds the sharpness
My silence is beyond word
Like my country
I have been suffered from vicissitude
So you don’t need to…even few hints
It seems the phosphorus in the air
Burns me, in fact
My silent body and heart are full of drumbeat
And my tears will burst at any time!
SO MUCH AND MANY
So many amazing poems
So much you
So much depth and untouchable chill
So much burning on the finger and you
So much me and many words beyond description
So much me and you beyond description
So many lonely rivers and mountains
So much turning lightning and rearing
So many amazing poems scattered
So much heartbreaking and you
POEM TO THE MIDDLE AGE
When getting at my middle age, I have to think about releasing myself at a rock
To enjoy talks with another me who is busy with the journey
As the scene I could imagine many years ago. I have to appreciate, at least
He has taken me to cross the encircled mountains and streets
And release me at a rock, a hard bone revealed in the dust
Then he takes all my sufferings
Like fading Jade sounding, away and away
Then, I weigh up the lightness of the blood and flesh
Till the rock speaks, speaks out
The insignificant pain belonging to the nightfall and the autumn!
_____________________
(Translated by Chen Lidong and Zhang Qiang)
