Declaration
By Bei Dao
for Yu Luoke
Perhaps the final hour is come
I have left no testament
Only a pen, for my mother
I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man
The still horizon
Divides the ranks of the living and the dead
I can only choose the sky
I will not kneel on the ground
Allowing the executioners to look tall
The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
From star-like bullet holes shall flow
A blood-red dawn
Copyright Credit: Bei Dao, "Declaration" from The August Sleepwalker. Copyright © 1988 by Bei Dao. Translation copyright © 1988, 1990 by Bonnie S. McDougall. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Source: The August Sleepwalker (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1990)