Three Poems by Pai Ch’iu
Problems of Bird-Raising
White sparrow
one hundred yen
black sparrow
thirty yen
A-huo calculates together with
his old wife
space: too small
bird-seed: too expensive
There’s got to be selection
A man has to make choices
Heaven, help!
A-huo has to become God
White sparrow
one hundred
black sparrow
thirty
Who knows whether the value won’t
change
Have anyway been born in the same
hedge
Everybody has a right to live.
What remains is
Space: too small
Bird-seed: too expensive
A-huo calculates with his wife
He’s got to be God
He’s got to kill semen
before the uterus
He cannot let grow
He cannot let live
He smashes the bird’s eggs
And lo:
All the unborn children
are bleeding themselves
empty
transl. by Liang Ching-feng and Andreas Weiland
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