中国大好き

Yan Yongmin
YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC

We haven’t had very much contact,
but then this friend who researches old Chinese literature
suddenly calls me.
„This is the year of a pandemic,
you are a poet,
you have to write about this.“
I hasten to say, I am writing,
but after the call I’m a little uneasy.
If I hadn’t been writing,
how could I face my friend?
You start on this road of writing poetry,
there will be people watching.
No matter if you know it or not,
it’s like they’re shining a light on your face,
looking for the four letters for “poet”,
so can I take that, to be on the spot?

Translated by MW, March 2020

 

 

标签： attention, characters, disaster, disease, expectations, 闫永敏, face, history, language, letters, life, literature, memory, NPC, pandemic, people, poetry, poets, society, virus, watching, world, writer, writing, Yan Yongmin, 新世纪詩典

This entry was posted on 三月 23, 2020 at 8:09 下午 and is filed under 2000s, 2003, 2010s, 2020, 20th century, 21st century, Antique times, February 2020, Middle Ages, NPC, poetry, Translations, Uncategorized, 新世纪诗典. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.