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original name Li Shizheng, born August 28, 1951, Peking. Education interrupted by outbreak of
Cultural Revolution in 1966. Assigned to production brigade in countryside near Peking from 1969 to 1975. Library assistant with Academy of Social Sciences.
Reporter with Peking newspaper Farmer's Daily from 1980 until 1989. Left China on June 4, 1989, with long-standing invitations from literary organizations in the west, after having witnessed the events on and around Tiananmen Square the night before.
Granted the Ann Kao Poetry Prize of the Year 2000, China (private foundation). Granted the Hans
Berghuisstok voor Poezie (poetry award) Maastricht, Netherlands, 2002. Works as professor of literature at Hainan University, China, 2004 2005, Chinese Language Literature Prize
Books of Poetry u.a.: 2000 Amusetedan de Heliu (the Canals of Amsterdam), Beiyue Publishers,
Shanxi, China; 2001 De Oogst van de Stilte, Beta Imaginations, Delft, Netherlands, 2002; The Boy who Catches Wasps, Zephyr Press, Mass., USA
"Duo Duo Poetry Collection" , China Hua Cheng Publication House, 2005 |
| Together
The light is on.
We are together
in the half that’s devoid
of light.
Our memory
is elsewhere
in that half the light
is too weak to reach.
We imagine it
from lack of imagination.
We are smoking.
Perhaps too early.
We’re together.
The light is brighter.
It’s a lamp; not light.
We’re together
because we’re afraid
while mother is flying
in an oven
like a moth.
We’re afraid.
We huddle closer,
waiting for mother to burn.
When the flames die
we have no eyelashes,
never sleeping.
We’re beyond self-description,
that’s impossible,
like our having no choices.
We’re infants
but not literally.
We are icebergs floating in the minds of infants.
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