Waiting for Sunup
Ma Lihua

Let my gaze go beyond the hills
And welcome up the sun

The prairie's eastern hem is trimmed with crimson
And across a red carpet will come now
The eternal lamp I share
With the universe
Long I stand in the meadow
Knowing him too distant
Yet believing in the advent of radiance and warmth
Enough. Let
My mind move for him or be still
My love flourish for him or be latent

Let my gaze go beyond the hills
And welcome up the sun of life

The slain spirit is far too brittle now
To manage the allurement of disillusion
And when the boat is drawn to the cold spring to sink low
Solar wind swells the sails of destiny once more
One really should have one last overweening ambition
To set sail for his far golden shore
Sun sun
Against you I shall never have defences
A semicircle of sun rises
Like the smile on an eye and eyebrow
To experience which I will turn my back on it
Raise high my left arm and my right arm
And cast a great shadow against the light
Oh prairie—sun
And the black papercut of me.