By Shi Tao; translated by Steve Bradbury

Pain

The portrait on the wall has lost all power of reflection
Likewise the wind outside the window is powerless to prevent outbreaks of violence
All through the night I tormented you like a man possessed
Until we were both spent
As two kites after a storm

I've played the prince in a fairytale drama
Waved my hands
On a moonlit night I've even
Overheard two crows conversing

Nonetheless the true face of tyranny has struck me down with
Ease. The pain lacks the tenderness of moonlight
In an iron box chockablock with lies
I struggle, in an effort to persuade myself to be uncomplaining
Patient, I swallow my anger in the heart of my homeland

Heretical Theories

Paint mad cows into full-color mannequins
To let pedestrians get closer to nature
Let the statue of our late-great leader grow rabbit ears
So day after day he'll hear the clamor of protests

Put politicos and beasts of prey
In the very same cages
Let Barbie Dolls water the arid flights of stairs
Let cigarettes run amok on women's lips

Love is but a line or two from
"Everybody Knows"
Every body that controls us
Is but a sightless blinding light

On the avenue, anonymous euphoric smells
The nostalgic flesh guardedly rebels against
Desire, leads to scarring
And is the cause as well of the garbage in our bodies

Make the color green duplicate the cry of the bird
But let the scream it emitted as it was crushed underfoot
Morph into a pleasant trip, let acrophobic supermen
Get right up close to observe my criminal behavior

Animal Farm

Reading Solzhenitsyn's
Cancer Ward
I find myself in Orwell's
Animal Farm
The Calf that Cannot Lie is being led to the slaughter
From the Oak of Wisdom, monkeys teach people how to read

Through their clothing, strangers
Stroke their pathological skin
Kindergarten children
Wonder why their heads
Have grown no horns
Pedestrians grimly learn
To walk with the gait of an elephant
Crocodiles look on helplessly as a giant fire
Dessicates the pools in which they lurk

Apples and oranges are haphazardly thrown
Together in the shops along the street
The mermaid who holds the key to the prophecy
Is hiding on the Planet Mars
Warming herself on the flaming-red stones