Facing the Sea with Spring Blossoms
--after Hai Zi
Starting tomorrow, I’ll be a happy man,
grooming my horses, chopping my wood, travelling
anywhere.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll raise grains and veggies
and live in a house facing the sea with spring blossoms.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll write all my dear ones
to report my happiness.
I’ll tell everyone I’m struck – by blessed lightning.
I’ll give every river – every mountain -- a
loving name.
Strangers all, I wish you every bliss.
May you have an incandescent future.
May you spend your life with one you love.
May you enjoy every happiness in the world.
I only want to face the sea with spring blossoms.
--tr. Duane Vorhees
Hai Zi was the pen name of Zha Haisheng. In 1979 he enrolled in Peking University at 15 and began to write poems but remained unknown to most readers until his death. He wrote several long poems ("choral operas") as well as short poems. He committed suicide by lying in the path of a train in Qinhuangdao, Hebei, at 25. Beside his body a bag was found containing a Bible, a book of short stories by Joseph Conrad, Henry David Thoreau's "Walden," and Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon-Tiki."
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