Poem

Wang Xiaoni

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Original language

I FELT THE SUNLIGHT

Along the long, long corridor I go on walking . . . —Before me there are dazzling windows, on either side, walls reflecting the light. The sunlight and I, I\'m standing with the sunlight. —Now I remember how intense that sunlight is! So warm it stops me from taking another step, so bright I hold my breath. The light of the whole universe converges here. —I\'m unaware of the existence of anything else. There is only me, leaning on sunlight, still for a full ten seconds. Sometimes, ten seconds is longer than a quarter of a century. Finally, I dash down the stairs, push open the door, and run in the spring sunlight . . .

© Translation: 2004, Unknown Chinese translator with Simon Patton

I FELT THE SUNLIGHT

© 1980, Wang Xiaoni

Wang Xiaoni

Wang Xiaoni

Call it a miracle of gravity . . . With simple words and startling images, Wang Xiaoni’s poetry attracts with its weight, calls attention to itself with its substantial themes and concerns, demands to be read for what it can tell us about rapture. And suffering. Although a product of the so-called “obscure” (menglong) generation of poets that emerged in China in the late 1970s, Wang has matured...

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Poems of Wang Xiaoni

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Full moon

5. What Voice Is That?

7. I Met with Deception

12. Your Heaven

1. My Retreat

4. There’s No Light in This World

The whistling wind

I FELT THE SUNLIGHT

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I FELT THE SUNLIGHT

Along the long, long corridor I go on walking . . . —Before me there are dazzling windows, on either side, walls reflecting the light. The sunlight and I, I\'m standing with the sunlight. —Now I remember how intense that sunlight is! So warm it stops me from taking another step, so bright I hold my breath. The light of the whole universe converges here. —I\'m unaware of the existence of anything else. There is only me, leaning on sunlight, still for a full ten seconds. Sometimes, ten seconds is longer than a quarter of a century. Finally, I dash down the stairs, push open the door, and run in the spring sunlight . . .

© 2004, Unknown Chinese translator with Simon Patton

I FELT THE SUNLIGHT

Along the long, long corridor I go on walking . . . —Before me there are dazzling windows, on either side, walls reflecting the light. The sunlight and I, I\'m standing with the sunlight. —Now I remember how intense that sunlight is! So warm it stops me from taking another step, so bright I hold my breath. The light of the whole universe converges here. —I\'m unaware of the existence of anything else. There is only me, leaning on sunlight, still for a full ten seconds. Sometimes, ten seconds is longer than a quarter of a century. Finally, I dash down the stairs, push open the door, and run in the spring sunlight . . .

© 2004, Unknown Chinese translator with Simon Patton

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