The sun transfuses its blood
into the gravely ill earth.
It lets the earth's body
flow with sunlight,
it also lets green leaves grow
from the bones of the dead.
Listen! Have you heard
twigs and leaves grown from the dead's bones
clink their wineglasses made from flowers.
This is Spring.
Translated by Li Xijian and James Newcomb
Prairie Schooner, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 1991), p. 56
Mang Ke, from Liaoning Province in China, began publishing in 1972. He is now one of the most widely acclaimed poets in China.
James W. Newcomb is a professor emeritus in the English department at the University of Memphis.