YANGSHAN MOUNTAIN PASS By Xiao Shui

YANGSHAN MOUNTAIN PASS

By Xiao Shui

When my grandmother was gravely ill, I returned from 1,000 miles away. 

Supported, she leaned up against the bed, blue jacket, red trousers,

not one gray hair out of place.  But her hands were limp, bearing many

needle marks. She secretly told me that I must find

a shaman to help her escort her spirit. That very evening, it was unusually cold,

from our isolated village I watched the myriad of stars in the sky,

and the torches' sparks following the wind around the mountain peak, rushing

into the canyon as if coming for my grandmother.

About the poet:

Xiao Shui, born in Chenzhou, Hunan Province in 1980, studied successively at the Law School and the Chinese Department of Fudan University. He has published poetry collections Lost‑and‑Found, Chinese Lessons, Mugwort: New Quatrains and Bohai Storybook: Prose‑Poems.