中国大好き

Li Haiquan
A BURIAL IN THE MOUNTAINS

The old lady has no children with her.
Several men pick up their strength
to straighten her curled up body,
I hear her bones creaking.
They wash her
and wrap her in linen.
She was bow-legged,
so those men all together
push her into the coffin,
bones rattling again.
They keep the coffin in a cool spot.
As they come out and lock the door,
an elder hands out dark chicken eggs
from the old lady’s coop
and reminds them to come again
for the interment in a few days.

Translated by MW, Oct. 2020

伊沙主持 | 新世纪诗典10一周联展（2020.10.4——10.10）

标签： body, burial, community, customs, death, history, Li Haiquan, memory, mountains, NPC, people, solidarity, tradition, 新世纪詩典, 李海泉

This entry was posted on 10月 7, 2020 at 1:11 上午 and is filed under 2020, 20th century, 21st century, Middle Ages, NPC, OCTOBER 2020, poetry, Translations, 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.