In the country fed by lies,
is it so hard to remain a man?
They do not live comfortably like you do.
You are not coming, you will not
stay. Even the poet’s glass
has lost patience.
In the country of big lies
it must be hard to stay normal.
You do not bring the news, I just suffer from insomnia, or in a dream, I’m a fugitive.
When will you come closer? As a northern blizzard,
cover me with the traces of hooves and shame: because you said
that love can cover a multitude of sins.
Water is boiling in an electric kettle, it speaks:
Let me get rid of my old self,
let me boil! With your generosity
or with the lips trembling from thirst
let me soothe your bowels,
the liver and the gallbladder, before a blizzard comes.
Hui Di (pen name Xin Hui Fan) is a poet, essayist, editor and translator living in Beijing.
Miroslav Kirin is a published poet from Croatia who has written more than ten volumes of poetry, two books of short fiction, a novel and a children’s picture book. He has read and studied contemporary Chinese poetry for almost two decades. He was invited to Beijing’s Home of International Poets within the Shangyuan Art Scene in summer 2014, where he worked with Hui Di and translated several of his poems into both Croatian and English.