Yi Sha
DOVE
In my sights straight in the distance,
a white dove
goes through a fire up to the sky.
Still it flies,
changed into black.
Maybe just its shadow,
its soul
flying. Maybe the ash
can keep the shape of a dove
high up and fly.
2000
Translated by MW, April 3rd, 2020
GERMAN VERSION IN HERE, SEE “Textprobe“
JUPITER
jupiter
is a marble
my daughter is
a sorcerer
a witch if you will
this cloud is a dragon
a hippo an angel
fields I have to cross in my life
when I see the clouds I feel closer to god
there is christ lying down before dying
don’t you see it?
don’t you believe me?
there is the eye
there are the nostrils
spewing fire!
come on do you think I am lying?
MW July 2016
Yang Guiye
YOU CANNOT
you cannot put someone’s hair on my head
you cannot add my head to someone’s neck
you cannot use my chest to think of someone’s breasts
you cannot join my arms to someone’s fingers
that hair and that neck, those breasts and those fingers
they don’t belong to me
you cannot change my skin
you cannot correct the shape of my face
you cannot substitute what I wear
you cannot choose the way I look at you
that skin and that shape, those clothes and that mien, they destroy how I am
I am attached to my hair
I am attached to my neck
I am attached to my breasts
I am attached to my fingers
I am attached to all parts of my body
my veins like the hairs on my skin
my voice likes my throat
my child likes my breasts
like my soul likes my flesh
— I live in my body
— without any modification at all
Tr. MW, Sept. 2015
