A Verse On Education (Meng Lang)

by Meng Lang (translated by Denis Mair) A VERSE ON EDUCATION School children in a rickety room are silent An old blackboard stands before them To provide their lifetime view into the distance- - The blackness of the blackboard Grabs hold of their entire purity The new teacher is you The first lesson may well go right into the future And so, children rub with all their energy The black of the blackboard- -can it be made blacker? This happens for one reason, for the sake Of a little more light, just a little more But a crack in the roof lets through All the gloom of this world and the sky You have not shown up The classroom itself begins to speak Reluctant to prophesize itself as a pile of ruins! School children in the rickety room are silent Silence opens a window on their youthful viscera