by Wu Xiangyang
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

Now I’m merely a scholar from the Ming Dynasty,
Writing my Tang-Dynasty poems in a Song-Dynasty script.
Those who precede me fall into the Shu State on the left and the
Ba on the right,
But they all will end in the Qin State.

The person I am destined to meet sets out from the Late Qing
Dynasty.
He is already on his way, walking backwards into time.
Spring days pay no attention to these, as if it is not in the
springtime.

The River Fu is consistent, and it stays the same but it flows.
Looking afar, I see that the light is something unfamiliar,
But darkness is something familiar in essence.

by Wu Xiangyang
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

Sitting face to face with a glass of wine, I spoke of love
I said: the body will remember even after love is gone
The wine said: the glass will remember after the wine runs dry

Outside, fish dreamed of the frontier during its lunch break
And a tree fell in love with a prairie

Our subsequent conversation goes:
When eyes forget, the nose will remember
When palms forget, the ears will remember
When the skin forgets, the bones will remember

And, when the wine runs dry
The glass and the tongue will remember

by Bai Hua
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

Breeze always winds into the ten-mile spring, Rain soaks only the
depth of one lantern.
The one who watches Du Mu climbing a tower Might well be a
man from Germany.

Eating can be a good game to kill boredom, The heat becomes
bitterness,
The old letter burns!  I touch, and it gasps.

To preclude flies swarming in Shanghai spring, I was sent to the
suburban countryside
And given a pair of chopsticks to pick maggots Out of the winter
fecal vats.

Alas, visitors to the immortals, do you really need
To make up the discontent of a clear day?
A gang of runners should upgrade to a congregation.

Notes:

1) a man from Germany refers to Germany sinologist Wolfgang Kubin, whose doctoral dissertation focused on the Tang Dynasty poet Du Mu (803–852).

2) The third stanza has its source from a memoir of the Great Cultural Revolution by Chinese lexicographer, Professor Lu Gusun (1940–2016) from Fudan University: “In chilling winter day, we went to fecal vats in the countryside of Jiangwan, using chopsticks to pick up maggots, and this was to prevent the maggots from becoming flies in the spring.”

by Bai Hua
     trs. by Fan Jinghua

Life, so short; but God still creates this face:

“Old age is worse than death.”

Yes, the older you get
The more hatred you get from children, let alone from women.

The air remains even and just.  Beauty has lost its terror. Remember: if you have no fear, you fear nothing.

Life, a variety of sacks and bags, too many to count or burn, From one to another . . .

Each moment is real. But take it with a pinch of salt, Unless you forget —

Russian is “a language that’s caught a cold” (Herta Müller).
“I love Sweden infinitely, there is illusion everywhere” (Rilke?).