#john balcom

[majestativa]

The lingering cloud-mist like a concealing veil, tempts the mountains with secret love.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[endless-unfolding]

In the burning fire The words cried out The ashes were silent

— Luo Fu, from “Funeral for a Poem,” trans. John Balcom in Frontier Taiwan: An Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry

[majestativa]

Give me such a dream where the dream in a dream will come true tomorrow.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[majestativa]

Home is where humanity treads.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[majestativa]

The blue-black sky conceals a hallucinatory red.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[majestativa]

Is this how you arrive? Ripples & echoes linger over the quiet water.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[majestativa]

Love & hate seek mutual warmth in their perpetual fight.

— XIANG YANG ⚜️ Grass Roots: Selected Poems, transl. by John Balcom, (2014)

[loudlylovingreview]

Wang Jiaxin: Two Poems

Translated from the Chinese by John Balcom Wild ChrysanthemumsA bought a large bouquet of chrysanthemums:Purple, yellow, and pure white, I bought them quicklyAs I came out of the supermarket yesterday eveningAt a roadside flower standBefore the two city inspectors got there Today the flowers are in a vaseOn my desk by the windowDecorating a poet’s autumn But where did the village woman selling…

Wang Jiaxin: Two Poems