White Bones (By Huang Xiang)

By Huang Xiang
(translated by Denis Mair)

After millions of years
In a stratum from ages ago
Perhaps someone
Will dig into the ground
And unearth my white bones
Perhaps he will think
Of a remote geological era
Of history obscured by remoteness in time
He’ll wonder if these are his ancestor’s remains
Or the fossil of an ancient form of life
When that happens
It will occur to him
This very heap of bones, on this earth
Once made its voice heard
Once loved
Once hated
Once cried
Once shouted
Once felt passion
It will also occur to him
This very heap of bones
Once had a face that was contorted in pain
Once hurled wordless curses with its eyes
Once pressed its lips together, drained of blood
To endure in silence
Once wrote verses to co-exist with moon and stars
These are the bones of a poet
These bones of a human being harbored hope
Yet tasted disappointment and despair
These are bones that fought crazily
These human bones walked and pushed forward
And collided their way through the world
These bones were the skeleton of a beaten man
Having been shattered they returned to erectness
These bones ground their teeth in hatred, down to the gums
These are bones that rattled when clenched in resistance
These bones saw lightning smite the sky, listened to sounds
Of every living thing that grew upon the land
After millions of years
In a stratum from ages ago
When these bones of a human being
When these remains I leave are unearthed
by Huang Xiang
(translated by Denis Mair)

By an anthropologist of the future
Or a geologist
Or an archaeologist
Please raise these leavings of water and air
Under the shared fire of the sun
And seek what made them human