You stand at the edge of light – Poetry from China

The drowsy night creates moist clouds

Stars are tears slipping down your world.

Yu Nong, an eminent poet from Shanghai, China shares his poetry

Yu Nong, born in 1966, currently lives in Shanghai. He is the president of “World Poetry” magazine and the vice chairman of Boao Poetry Festival Organizing Committee. He is the author of poetry collections “Time Doesn’t Avoid Cold and Warm”, “The Best Encounter” and so on. He has won the award of Shanghai Citizen Poetry Festival, the “Poet of the Year” at the 4th Boao International Poetry Festival, and the 20th Lebanon Naji Naaman Literary Prize.

You stand at the edge of light

The street is engulfed in a sea of lights

Schools of shining fish shuttle like fireflies.

Tall buildings look at each other in the whirlpool of light

The window lattice frames a night that does not belong to you

You stand at the edge of light

Silently watching the long loong dance of the lights.

When you try to get closer to the starlight

The perceived distance exposes your identity of a mere spectator

The world we have walked through is a sky filled with stars

You accompanied the lonely star approaching the window all night

But it doesn’t know you’ve been here.

The drowsy night creates moist clouds

Stars are tears slipping down your world.

***

Black tiles pave the shallows of time

From the gentle sound of the wind

The eaves receive the news of spring earlier than the leading migratory birds

Black tiles pave the shallows of time

Layers of waves

Slowly dissipating on the pier of the eaves

With the wind touching down

The withered leaves embedded in the tile are letters sent to the past

The neem tree next to the eaves

Still waiting eagerly

A mischievous and playful childhood under the tree

A few sparrows gently moved their footsteps on the tile

Afraid of disturbing the spring surging from all directions.

***

Leaving from the echoes of dusk

The gust of wind knolls the dusk on the treetops

You leave from the echo

The sinking clouds imprison the breathing of the stars

Carrying rain, pressing towards your unfinished journey of heart

Night hides the hillsides, birds, and sky

And familiar figures

You walk into the night, get close to it

But never saw its face clearly

The night blurs directions

And you carry the stubborn tinder.

______________

Coordinated by: Angela Kosta Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter