LET ME DISAPPEAR By Hai Nan

LET ME DISAPPEAR

Hai Nan

Let me disappear, like how it happens in storybooks,

reading, skimming pages, in forgetfulness

granted a gloomy night. I'm tired.

The inland route will lead me onshore to my

next life. I savor the autumn scenery slowly rising over the horizon.

Only after trekking far in the mud, I see

those women wearing silver ornaments across their chests.

Among them, some have already grown old.

The younger ones haven’t known the art of harvesting wheat.

Drawers, earlobes, hidden weapons, a downpour of rain.

The divide between men and women over generations

led to territories separated by earth and water.

The cooling autumn reminds me of porcelain

and the cold virgin forests.

I want to sob in your arms.

A hard autumn wind blows…

About the poet:

Hai Nan, born in the 1960s, is a renowned contemporary Chinese writer and one of the representative figures of pioneering female writers in China.

She has won numerous awards, including the 1996 Liu Lian Poetry Award, the Honorary Award for Top Ten Female Poets in the New Era of China, the 2005 Shigebao Annual Poet Award, the 2008 Poetry Monthly Powerful Poet Award, the 3rd China Women's Literature Award in 2009, and the 6th Lu Xun Literature Award (Poetry Category) in 2014.

Her cross-genre works include Biography of Men, Biography of Women, Biography of the Body and Biography of Love. Her representative full-length novels are Patterns, Night Life, Caravan City and Private Life. Her prose collections consist of Hanging Garden, Voices in the Screen, My Magical Journey and Toast to Men. Her poetry collections include Lip Color, Imaginary Roses and What Lurks Behind.

Currently, she serves as a specially-appointed professor at Yunnan Normal University.