Terra-Cotta Warrior (By Yi Sha)

by Yi Sha (translated by Denis Mair) 1 I am still alive I can still move my heavy legs Up the iron ladder you have erected To emerge from underground I can still crack my whip Mount upon my own horse And run with the wind Across this still-living plain. I still feel my own blood The same temperature as the soil; All these little bumps and jostles Against my umber-colored skin Have raised scarlet marks Flecks of hematite. But when I reach out stiff fingers To touch growing things on this land For which my heart kept beating, In a moment they have become Unlike what they once were 2 That grove of tall trees And amber waves that rolled Through stalks of wheat uplifted Just a moment ago were holding up the sun Before which you used to bow in worship; Now the earth cracked like a tortoise shell No longer has a throaty sigh of rivers, Green mountains suddenly gone desolate No longer are wreathed in clouds. Could it be my arrival Has cast a pall on things? Will my spirit's light Forever be dimmed? Eagerly you await your visitor from outer space Outfitted in his brand-new armor. His glitter only outdoes me Because of all that extracted metal. 3 Two thousand years I stood in a deep trance, underground Two thousand years Blind despite my staring eyes. We were dressed and ready for ages But marching orders never came. Meanwhile the sky turned color. After so long the light greets my eyes What campaign can we set off on? What rebels to suppress? I live Because of one emperor's death I die Because another emperor lives In this ever-prolonged dynasty This chain of reigns that will not die. 4 I exist in solitude Standing in these vast ranks Like a single wheat blade Standing on the plain Where the sun shines for everyone. Our tender green arms lift it over the earth; It is exalted among heavenly powers. At dusk each day the setting sun Drops into each lone heart, To wait in darkness is our despair, We sleepwalk here and there Desires like new bamboo in spring Are parting their sheaths, Yet we stay in formation Our martial deportment never lax You can see we have kept it up Doing drills in our dreams. Now the light greets me again First I mistook magnesium lamps for sunlight, My eyes are blinded. 5 Under the piercing glare I am faint and nauseous. Amid a group of muted voices I hold back words, keep silent. You who descend from me, if I Am only a clay figure of arrogance Standing at one of your leisure spots Serving as one of your symbols, Please send me into exile, Exile an old soldier who still has a taste for rice To garrison a border district, At least I'll serve as the image of a sentry Otherwise why don't you Bury me all over again? 6 Who was it Who chopped off my head? In broad daylight Stuck on a price tag, put it up for sale Now I realize The meaning of my ancientness. In these new times It robs my heart of hope Right when my head was severed Surely you must have heard My parting cry to the grassland To my battle horse and long whip To my roundness like the sun's. 7 I bend my body down In search of my skull I fall over with a rumble Transforming to a heap of yellow earth. Amid aching silence all around Who is that strumming that sad tune 'AMBUSH ON ALL SIDES'?