Poem of Fate
By Zhao Ye
It is spring, I suddenly want to write a poem
Just like that wild grass growing by a pond, and
Catkins flying out of willow and poplar trees.
Opening my memory, the only available memory
Is like water in the pond being stirred by fish
Or wind that follows swirling birds
Bees are stubbornly circling before my eyes
For persons and things, I failed to live up to
I must say I owe much to you
However, a moonlight from the Qin Dynasty
Or a soul of a dead person in the Song Dynasty
May be here today unexpectedly
For they all had my address
I thus feel that this world can be trusted
And at this moment sunlight
Is more important than ten thousand books
The past is bygone,
Booming days are in sight
(Zhao Ye, a contemporary Chinese poet, was born in Sichuan in 1964. He graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Sichuan University.)
