Woman of June gathers water, gathers moonlight
Woman of July sells cotton
Woman under the August tree
washes her ears
I hear in the opposite window
that the woman of September is engaged
her ring like a wet chick in her pocket
Woman of October blows out the candles
of her wedding. Black doors
fall on the grasslands
Moon
Chimney smoke up and down
The moon is a white ape digging a well
The moon is a white ape smiling wanly on the river
How many times blood trickles out of the sky
The white ape flows past a bell tower
The moon is a white ape smiling wanly
The moon breaks its own heart
July is Not Far
—for Qinghai Lake, please put out my love
July is not far
The birth of sex is not far
Love is not far—under a horse’s nose
salt in the lake
Thus Qinghai is not far
Beehives along the lake
make me lugubrious:
Flowers bloom in green grass.
On Qinghai Lake
my loneliness is like heaven’s horse
(Thus, heaven’s horse is not far)
I am the loveseed: the wild flower
sung in poems, the only fatal flower
in the belly of heaven’s horse
(Qinghai Lake, put out my love!)
The green stem of a wild flower is not far
The ancient names in the medicine chest are not far
(Other bums, their sicknesses cured
returned home, I want to go visit you now)
Thus over the mountain and across the water
death is not far
Bones hang in my body like branches on blue water
O Qinghai Lake, the dusk-covered water:
Everything is in front of me!
But the birds of May have flown away
The first bird that drinks my head of jewels has flown away
Only Qinghai Lake stays, this corpse of jewels
this dusk-covered water
Folk Artists
Three blind men on the plain
are leaving for the far
Red handdrums suddenly beat
at midnight
There’s no dead man
no datewood crutch being buried
Beat, beat
The heart sleeps in the farthest place
Three blind men on the plain
are leaving for the far
That night
they eat sorghum pancakes in the dark
Ocean Overhead
Primitive mother
hides from a farmer
She throws his sickle in the field
drowns her baby in the well
and lets the field lie waste
In the lamplight it seems I’ve met her
She jumps into the ocean
and the ocean hangs over the barn
It seems the snow
of my hair and my father’s is burning
Ballads
1.
If you’re my brother you wave your hand
If you aren’t you go on your way
Little lamp, little lamp, lift his buried eyes
Your woods are big and black
Your horse is not quiet
Your lips have wild honey
Are you a husband—or a brother
Little lamp, little lamp, lift his buried eyes
If you’re my brother you wave your hand
If you aren’t you go on your way
2.
White pigeons, white pigeons
tie my scarf
Wind blows your bodies
and blows my white scarf
White pigeons white pigeons don’t say a word
Pretty head little sun
turns into moon at night
White pigeons white pigeons don’t say a word
3.
Moon moon slowly climbs
shines on a wooden bed
River river quickly flows
covers the flesh in my heart
White horse crosses the river, a spread of white
Black horse crosses the river, a spread of black
This river is always
the river in my heart
White horse crosses the river, a full moon
Black horse crosses the river, a half moon
This moon is always
the moon on my bed