To the Ends of the Earth

Jiang Tao
Translated from the Chinese by Josh Stenberg

who can take me from octobermaintaining composure, the way a filthyred is excised. the sun is a specklelabor softens peopleplease turn the music down, even when the fleshhas been gnawed clean, there are teeth marks on the leftoverswho will take away what’s left of formlike removing a used matchcharred, though not fully burnton the outskirt’s streets, looking at birdsconstantly replenishing fuelconstantly gulping aspirinsome luck, medical treatmentis ineffective, singing is strenuousand who will lead “to the ends of the earth”like a white horse, neighing,away from me 天涯有谁能把我带出十月不动声色,如同带走一团肮脏的红色。太阳是个斑点劳动让人柔软请把音量调小,当肉体被啃光,齿痕留在了余粮上谁会把剩下的形式带走像带走一小把火柴的梗焦黑的、没烧完的在郊外的公路上,看小鸟不断在补充燃料不断吃阿司匹林这是怎样的幸运,医治是无效的,唱歌是费劲的谁又将“天涯”像一匹白马,萧萧叫着牵离了我身边

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Jiang Tao (姜涛, born 1970) is a Beijing poet and literary critic and professor at Peking University. He is the author of four slender collections of selected and new poems: 鸟经 (Bird scripture),好消息 (Good news), 我们共同的美好生活 (Our beautiful life together), and 洞中一日 (A day in the cave).

Josh Stenberg (b. 1981) teaches at the University of Sydney. He is the translator of several works of contemporary Chinese fiction, poetry, and drama, and the author of a poetry collection, nibs & nubs. 

In these melancholy and self-mocking poems — populated with youths and elders, cellphones and televisions — Jiang Tao presents and dissects a discontent with the state of the world. He employs his profound wit and poetic mastery to explore the passage of time, rural-urban migration, change and impermanence, and the difficulties of human communication and connection. Jiang Tao’s verse is, as translator Josh Stenberg has written, “a quintessential expression of urban malaise in contemporary China.” This is his first book to appear in English and is presented bilingually on facing pages.

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