I wander, and by chance

Come upon them

Golden light swaying at the cliff’s edge…

Zhuang Xiaoming

Zhuang Xiaoming, art name Dongxiang, was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, in April 1964. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a member of the Jiu San Society. He has published a large body of poems, critical essays, prose and fictions in numerous journals nationwide. Twelve works have come out in print, including poetry collections Evening Breeze, Treading Snow to Go Home, Shape and Shadow, Requiem for Wenchuan, Echoes of Heavenly Questions, Poetry and Thought and A Dictionary of Zhuangzi; prose collection Skylight of Time; fable fiction collections Net in the Air and Notes from Dongxiang; short story collection Fables and Labyrinths; and poetics treatise Retreating Vanguard. His writings have been anthologized in dozens of selected works, such as Appreciation of Famous Modern Chinese Poems, A Hundred Years of Modern Chinese Poetry, A Century of New Poetry from Jiangsu, Twenty Folk Poets of 20th-Century China, Fifteen Mid-generation Poets of the First Fifteen Years of the 21st Century, as well as annual anthologies like China Annual Poetry Anthology, China Poetry Ranking List and bilingual Anthology of Chinese Poems (Chinese-English). Net in the Air is included in the series One Hundred Classic Micro-Fictions of a Century. Shape and Shadow is listed on the Canonical Poetry Roll of the Lixiahe Literary School. The magazine China Talents ran a special feature covering his literary achievements. He has also composed ten poetic dramas. On the evening of December 20, 2023, his poetic drama Regret for the Past • Zijun premiered successfully performed by the Fanding Theatre Troupe at Hongshan College, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics. His honors include the 2nd Zijin Mountain Literature Prize of Jiangsu Province, the Critical Writing Award of China Regional Poetry Prize, the 6th China Long Poem Prize, the 2025 Outstanding Chinese Poetry Critic Award, the Excellent Thesis Award of the 9th Huaxia Poetry Prize, and the Excellent Thesis Award of the First Frontier Dialogue Between New-Style and Classical Poetry. He currently resides in Yangzhou.

庄晓明，号东乡。1964年4月出生于江苏扬州。中国作家协会会员、九三学社会员。曾在各大刊物发表诗歌、评论、随笔、小说若干。已出版有诗集《晚风》《踏雪回家》《形与影》《汶川安魂曲》《天问的回声》《诗与思》《庄子词典》，随笔集《时间的天窗》，寓言小说集《空中之网》《东乡笔记》，短篇小说集《寓言与迷宫》，诗学论集《后退的先锋》等12部。作品入选《中国现代诗歌名篇赏析》《中国百年新诗经》《江苏百年新诗选》《中国二十世纪民间诗人二十家》《21世纪15年中间代诗人15家》，及《中国年度诗选》《中国诗歌排行榜》《中国诗选》（汉英双语版）等多种选集。《空中之网》入选“百年百部微型小说经典”。《形与影》入选“里下河文学流派经典诗歌榜”。《中华英才》杂志曾对其文学成就做了专题报道。另创作有剧诗10部，2023年12月20日晚，创作的剧诗《伤逝•子君》，在南京财经大学红山学院由凡丁剧社成功首演。曾获第二届江苏省紫金山文学奖、中国地域诗歌奖评论奖、第六届中国长诗奖、2025年度华语诗歌杰出诗歌评论家奖等。以及第九届“华夏诗词奖”优秀论文奖，首届“新旧体诗前沿对话”优秀论文奖。现居扬州。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

Wild Chrysanthemums

I wander, and by chance

Come upon them

Golden light swaying at the cliff’s edge

 

The dark abyss below, the sapphire vault above

All are fused as one

By this wavering gold

 

All creation lays bare, each mirroring the other

Golden sparks keep surging upward

As if a celebration unfolds

 

They sway along the cliff rim

Fading away in solitude

As though they had never been

 

Yet one strand of golden radiance

Still roams on, borne by my brush

Crossing the world’s far edge

野菊

我漫游，偶然中

遇见了它们

金色的光，摇曳于悬崖边缘

 

沉黑的深渊，湛蓝的天幕

由于这金色摇曳

而焊为一体

 

万物敞开，相互为镜

金色的焰火，不断升起

仿佛一个节日

 

它们摇曳于悬崖边缘

将寂寞中凋谢

似从未存在

 

但有一束金色的光

仍在漫游，随着我的笔

穿越于世界边缘

***

You and I

You and I

Live in adjoining rooms

With a door

That sways now and then

 

You and I

Are close sometimes

Strange other times

Like strangers on a chaotic street

 

You and I

One heads east

One west

Yet meet around the corner now and then

 

You and I

Turn toward emptiness at times

Talking of each other

As if speaking of another planet

 

You and I

Roam our separate starry skies

Yet sometimes feel

The gravitational pull between us

我与你

我与你

住在相邻的房间

有一扇门

时而晃动

 

我与你

时而熟识

时而陌生

像在混乱的街头

 

我与你

一个向东

一个向西

却时而墙角相遇

 

我与你

时而面向虚无

谈论彼此

像谈论另一个星球

 

我与你

各自的星空漫游

却时而感着

彼此的引力

***

Echo

Empty valley

Echoes linger

Chasing themselves

 

Against the valley’s twin cliffs

They bounce

Interweave

With every drift back and forth

They absorb more of the valley’s hollow breath

 

Little by little they forget

Which flees

Which pursues

Forgetting they once sprang

From a single call

 

They drift farther apart

Growing alien to one another

Trapped between

The valley’s two stone walls

 

And also between

You

And me

回声

空谷

回声在

自我追逐

 

在空谷的两壁

弹弄

交织

每一次摆渡

便加入一些空谷的元素

 

它们渐渐忘了

谁在逃亡

谁在追逐

忘了它们

来自一个呼唤

 

它们愈行愈远

渐渐陌生

在空谷的

两壁之间

 

在

我与你

之间

___________________

Read: The Wild Steed – Poetry from China