冬至 Winter Solstice

Category: Poetry

Rating: General

Author: 陈年喜 Chen Nian Xi

Translator: Momo Xu

The phone’s other side Mother said

It’s snowing on the mountain and I suddenly remembered

That she’s seventy-two and snow left for her to see

Is growing thin

The phone put down and all is white

The snow piled upon my whole life

Falls completely in an instant

I can carry never again

Store girl carries over a bowl of dumpling

I see that she carries over a bowl of snow

On the mountain opposite is White Horse Temple

Its pink walls I vaguely notice

I treasure all that’s minute

Like a gust of gold ginkgo leaves

Gliding down from White Horse Temple

They are neither fast nor slow

Like some happening things

Snowless Suiyang is always raining

People put up their umbrellas drive their cars to Zunyi

Farther north Chongqing is bridged to nine provinces

Wherever one lives one is a wind

Blowing down the river valley

Blowing across Kuanshan and sunsets

Blowing at last to places beyond the snow