A Yan Li Poem

Give It Back to Me 

Please give me back the door without a lock
   even without a room still I want it back please!
Please give me back the rooster that awakens me
   in the morning
   even if you have finished eating it
   still I want the
   bones back please!
Please give me back the shepherd‘s song
   from the side of the hill
   even if it is on tape still I want it back please!
Please give me back a relationship to my
   brothers and sisters
   even if it lasts no more than a year, still I want it
   back please!
Please give me back the space of love
   even if you‘ve worn it out, still I want it
   back please!
Please give me back the whole of the globe
   even divided into thousands of nations
   hundreds of thousands of villages
   still I want it back please!


(1986)

Trans. John Chow