Say to the Soul
Written by Xiao Xiao
Translated from the Chinese by Jami Proctor Xu
Narrated by Jami Proctor Xu
China
You need to make yourself happy a million times faster
Remove the shackles of long-held delusions
from your neck, and throw them away
When you open your eyes from the window of long-held suffering,
take a deep breath, and rub your veins
in the most subtle, real waves deep in the soul
How much clamor comes from your imaginary enemies?
How many obstructions come from your blood relatives?
How much necrosis comes from your dark parts?
You can’t make everything become possible
You only have one body, one heart scattered in the headwind
Write happiness on the back cover of suffering
Don’t let the heavy burdens in your life be fatal
Live purely for yourself once
at least for 60 seconds, at most for the rest of your life
Xiao Xiao is a Chinese poet and painter. She has published six poetry collections in China and edited a series of modern and contemporary Chinese poetry anthologies. Her work has been translated into a number of languages including, among others, German, English, Japanese, French, Korean, and Farsi. She is a recipient of many literary awards in China, such as the Wen Yiduo Poetry Prize, Special Contribution Award of a Hundred Years of New Chinese Poetry, the Poetry Prize of Beijing Literature. She is the first Asian to receive the Tudor Arghezi International Poetry Prize of Romania, and Romania named her an honorary citizen.
Jami Proctor Xu is a bilingual poet and translator. She is the recipient of a Zhujiang Poetry Award and a First Readers Poetry Award. Her translations of Song Lin’s collection, Sunday Sparrows (Zephyr, 2020), received the Northern California Book Award for Poetry in Translation.