The Reply

THE REPLY

Contempt is the passport
of the contemptible,
Gravitas is the epitaph of the grave.
See, in this aureate sky,
the bent, floating reflections
of the dead.

They say that the glacial era has passed,
why then is ice everywhere?
The Cape of Good Hope has been sighted,
why do a thousand ships still clash
on the Dead Sea?

I have come into this world,
bringing only paper, cord, and shadow,
to defend before the trial
those voices that have been judged:

I tell you, world,
I—do—not—believe!
Be there a thousand challenges underfoot,
count me as number one thousand and one.

I do not believe the sky is blue;
I do not believe the thunder’s echoes;
I do not believe that dreams falsify;
I do not believe in death
without retribution.

If the sea is doomed
to smash the embankments,
let all the brack dump into my heart;
if dry land is doomed to rise,
let all humanity claim a new summit.

A new turn for the better
with twinkling stars
is being stitched
into the unbarricaded sky—
it is an ideogram from
five thousand years ago,
the staring eyes of the people
of tomorrow.


Bei Dao

Posted over on Poems & Poetics

Translation from Chinese by Clayton Eshleman & Lucas Klein