Poem

Yan Jun

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January 2

I thought I wanted to say something
I looked at the snow   then went back to the desk

Or perhaps I counted money    or perhaps I did laundry
Crows flew in the suburbs     flew by the front door

I waited quietly
like a hotpot in winter

There won’t be any more discounted plane tickets
I waited to sacrifice myself    and then it was the new year

2 JANUARI

Ik dacht dat ik wat moest zeggen
Ik heb sneeuw gezien   en keer terug naar de tafel

Ik tel het geld    of was de kleren
de kraai vliegt door de wijk    langs de voordeur

Ik wacht stilletjes
net als Chinese fondue in de winter

De goedkope vliegtickets zijn er niet meer
Ik wacht op de opoffering   dan is het jaar voorbij

Yan Jun

(China, 1973)

In recent years, the poet and musician Yan Jun has been writing mainly diary poems and explications of aspects of contemporary China, along with allusions to classical subject matter. One feature of Yan Jun’s poetry is its vitality and rapid turnover of images, one following on rhythmically from the other. In ‘Charter Sonnet’, for instance, each line begins urgently with the repeated phras...

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Poems of Yan Jun

January 2

I thought I wanted to say something
I looked at the snow   then went back to the desk

Or perhaps I counted money    or perhaps I did laundry
Crows flew in the suburbs     flew by the front door

I waited quietly
like a hotpot in winter

There won’t be any more discounted plane tickets
I waited to sacrifice myself    and then it was the new year

January 2

I thought I wanted to say something
I looked at the snow   then went back to the desk

Or perhaps I counted money    or perhaps I did laundry
Crows flew in the suburbs     flew by the front door

I waited quietly
like a hotpot in winter

There won’t be any more discounted plane tickets
I waited to sacrifice myself    and then it was the new year