A Distant Center Page 4
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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