Poetry in Motion
New York
A Bouquet (an excerpt)
Bei Dao
A Bouquet (an excerpt)
Between me and the world
You are a calendar, a compass
A ray of light that slips through the gloom
You are a biographical sketch, a bookmark
A preface that comes at the end
Between me and the world
You are a gauze curtain, a mist
A lamp shining into my dreams
You are a bamboo flute, a song without words
A closed eyelid carved in stone
"A Bouquet" translated by Bonnie S. McDougall, from The August Sleepwalker. Copyright © 1998 by Bei Dao. Translation copyright © 1988, 1990 by Bonnie S. McDougall. Reprinted with permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.