A Distant Center Read online

  diffident about your art

  and would also debase you.

  People who see you in person

  might think you’re too common,

  your achievement due to luck

  like a blind cat that stumbles on a dead mouse.

  Your frequent appearance

  would dishearten others

  because you exist far away,

  at the end of their imagination —

  you should be watched but not reached.

  Look, this skyful of stars,

  which one of them

  doesn’t shine or die alone?

  Their light also comes

  from a deep indifference.

  PRAYER

  Straighten up, my soul.

  Don’t try to please anyone alive.

  Don’t make way for any group.

  Don’t listen to sarcasm and hatred.

  May you again burn with youthful madness.

  Let your dream spread its rugged wings

  so you won’t weigh the odds when taking off,

  and every flight will be your final one.

  May you possess an animal-like disposition —

  never complain or lose heart.

  Live patiently like a bird or fish

  and spend every day as your best one.

  May you pursue ancient wisdom,

  love truth more than beauty,

  stay the course no matter how rough.

  Let life and work be one.

  May you become your own monument.

  OLD

  In no time you have become an old man.

  Children on streets call you “granduncle.”

  You are old, really old.

  You used to burn with so many desires,

  consumed by bitterness and despair,

  all because you wanted what did not belong to you.

  You used to squander your life

  hoping your soul’s fire could light up

  some eyes and dispel

  one patch of darkness after another.

  Now you are old,

  but may your heart get purer,

  burning only for one person or one thing

  until it turns to ashes.

  PAPER

  You must cherish the blank paper in front of you

  and write out words that cannot be erased.

  If you are fortunate

  they will keep a story evergreen

  and will enter into your backbone.

  This piece of paper is a humble beginning,

  but no calumny, no power

  can shake your words in black and white.

  Your voice and timeless news

  will rise from here gradually.

  You must give all you have

  to the good paper in front of you.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Ha Jin left China for America in 1985. He writes in both English and Chinese. In English, he has published three previous volumes of poetry, eight novels, four collections of stories, and a book of essays. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Boston University and lives outside Boston.

  ALSO BY HA JIN

  POEMS

  Wreckage

  Facing Shadows

  Between Silences

  SHORT STORIES

  A Good Fall

  The Bridegroom

  Under the Red Flag

  Ocean of Words

  NOVELS

  The Boat Rocker

  A Map of Betrayal

  Nanjing Requiem

  A Free Life

  War Trash

  The Crazed

  Waiting

  In the Pond

  ESSAYS

  The Writer as Migrant

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to these journals, in which the following poems originally appeared:

  Narrative: “Acceptance,” “At Least,” “A Center,” “The Detached,” “The Lost Moon,” and “My China Dream”

  Poetry: “Missed Time”

  Copyright 2018 by Ha Jin

  All rights reserved

  Cover art: Home within Home within Home within Home within Home, 2013, polyester fabric, metal frame, 1,530 × 1,283 × 1,297 cm, site-specific commissioned artwork for Hanjin Shipping Box Project MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Seoul, 13 November 2013–11 May 2014. © Do Ho Suh

  ISBN: 978-1-55659-462-5

  eISBN: 978-1-61932-187-8

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