5 Poems by Li Xiaoyang (pen name Cong An)

Translated from Chinese by Stella Jiayue Zhu

The Lock

Fastened to keys and thieves in its fate
Just as life is fastened to the bright and degenerate,
To forgiveness or silence.
 
Whether it is gold, silver, or bronze,
In guarding a door, it also leaves longing beyond the threshold
When night falls, the lock sinks into infinite vigilance.
 
Ordinarily, the lock lives in its hollow core,
Opening and closing another with the symmetry of shackles.
And, where it is gnawed away by worms, demands a more precise force
For its complete disclosure.

‘The Lock’ was first published in Chinese Poetry (Zhongguo Shige), 2017 vol.5

Chinese Peonies

Peonies are governed by fire. Noblemen have the nation’s land embroidered
On damask. To unroll the calligraphy paper
Is to pour out a landscape across a thousand rivers: Chang’an, Luoyang, Yangzhou
Royal red, herbal white, yellow, and purple, each remembered after their cultivator
Many years have passed, peonies rouse metaphors from dictionaries
A lifelong city, twin flowers
Tonight, drinking—advisable, pawning silverwares—advisable
Inviting poet Li Bai in all his eminence—advisable
Falling asleep in the night market’s tavern—advisable. Pour a pot full of moonlight
Down a big gulp under the flowers

‘Chinese Peonies’ was first published in Stars (Xingxing: Shige Yuanchuang), 2018 vol.4

A Description of Chinese Bayberries

Having sharpened his machete, he beats it into a tree bearing fresh, juicy
Chinese bayberries. Rustling, branches and leaves
And flowers yet to be given in marriage
Are swept together under bike chains.
He strips naked for a big shake, making an emerald-green berry tree
Shudder in spring. The lamp hangs above
Now brighter, now darker.

Now brighter, now darker.
From across the river come sounds, drenched, now black, now white
Like a daze. Like a craze. Like someone whose limbs have fallen into a fog.
The string in the fisherman’s hand keeps quivering.
It’s coming, a big fish is coming, he says.
Swim. When the big fish lands in her body
He is overcome with chills, lips stained with the ocean’s salty tang 

‘A Description of Chinese Bayberries’ was first published in Poetry Journal (Shi Kan), May 2016

Attending the Morning Court Assembly

Stop the temple block. Unclench the fist. Then curl it again inside the sleeve. Let the drifting snow from early morning melt into hoary hair. Hide an unfinished dream from Qingxiang Pavilion in a golden chamber. Walk out of the academy, waking guardian stone lions from their sleep.

Put on the official hat adorned with red coral finial; dress in a robe with five-clawed serpents, nine in number; tidy the surcoat that carries an embroidered patch of crane insignia. Wear the court necklace of tourmaline beads. Prepare an official litter draped in green wool, leaving home setting out on the road. Up the city gate tower, along the stairs. The court scholar walks into a golden cage made of iron, sees a panther from Rilke’s poem, and tiptoes around in caution

To open ninety-nine gates lacquered in red. An army dressed in white raises its banners, knives, and axes together. The sound of bells is majestic. A grasshopper, suited up, waits to be snared by sight. Comb through the veins in language. Lower the court report until its center of weight rests on the knees. Kneel. Kowtow. Bend a carrying pole of human flesh 

Weighed down by the ivory scepter. Blue paving bricks crowd one another. Whether it is reward or punishment, ‘tis essential to wait for the decree with unease, resigning myself to being wrapped under a thousand strokes of water grass, penetrated by a thousand voices in the palace hall. A thousand kinds of echoes resound the giant bells of the world, of gold and silver, of green-stained copper, and of iron rust.

‘Attending the Morning Court Assembly’ was first published in Stars (Xingxing: Shige Yuanchuang), 2017 vol.9

The Book of Rocks

The world depends on rocks to grow in depth 
Carving, chiseling, and sculpting
Receiving its tonsure under iron, a rock
Then acquires the flesh body of a Buddha
This body
Is searching for a body beyond bodies.
The life of a rock is hard. Even
Secrets, even joys
Have calmly settled into a gentle pulse.
When water floods the bank
Rocks in the mud conceal in their bosoms fateful jade
While doubts
Are for those who give rocks shape.

‘The Book of Rocks’ was first published in Chinese Poetry (Zhongguo Shige), 2018 vol.5

About the author and translator:

Li Xiaoyang (pen name Cong An) is a Chinese poet, writer, and academic. He holds a doctoral degree in film studies and teaches at Beijing Film Academy. His poetry, criticism, fiction, essays, and screenplays have appeared in Chinese Writers, Hua Cheng, Stars, Poetry Journal, Chinese Poetry, and other journals in China. He was Chinese literary journal Stars’ poet of the year in 2017. He is author of the monograph Time Fugue: Memories of Labor in Chinese Films (Jincheng, 2021) and a collection of poetry titled The Evening of Chloris (Changjiang Literature and Art, 2021).

Stella Jiayue Zhu is a translator, editor, and academic, currently completing her PhD in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. She is the managing editor of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.