Tristia.

Han, Yan ; Wu, Yongan

Trisda

 The farewell was written in the gaze
 The grim hourglass counts every passing moment

 Seeing you bleed dry, drop by drop
 Not a coincidental part in the chain of sacrifice

 A soft, invisible chain,
 A vertebra gluing all lives together!

 The chain extends in sleeplessness, luminous,
 Another person stands outside the queue.
 Why was the jade burned but the feathers fly all over the sky?
 Crowded with the living, who is talking to me?

 The chain is extending, people cannot live without vertebrae
 Another star rolls into the throat of the hinterland.

Translations from the Chinese

By Yongan Wu

HAN YAN (b. 1969) is the author of two verse collections, Section and Echo. She lives in Jinan.

YONGAN Wu teaches Chinese at the University of Oklahoma and studies English education as a doctoral student. His research interests include Chinese-English literacy, Chinese history and literature, and educational technology.