Black Map
By Bei Dao
Translated By Eliot Weinberger
in the end, cold crows piece together
the night: a black map
I've come home—the way back
longer than the wrong road
long as a life
bring the heart of winter
when spring water and horse pills
become the words of night
when memory barks
a rainbow haunts the black market
my father's life-spark small as a pea
I am his echo
turning the corner of encounters
a former lover hides in a wind
swirling with letters
Beijing, let me
toast your lamplights
let my white hair lead
the way through the black map
as though a storm were taking you to fly
I wait in line until the small window
shuts: O the bright moon
I go home—reunions
are one less
fewer than goodbyes
Copyright Credit: Bei Dao, "Black Map" from The Rose of Time: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2010 by Zhao Zhenkai. Translation copyright © 2010 by Eliot Weinberger. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Source: The Rose of Time: New & Selected Poems (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2010)