We (By Li Yawei)

by Li Yawei (translated by Denis Mair) by Li Yawei Our camels are losing shape, our caravan becomes unreal Whichever way you figure, we're an argumentative crowd Crossing deserts, fording streams, going to get some culture Refracted by mirage onto a seashore Our faces are ordinary, easy to forget and to caress Once all swallowed up in feeling, now resolving out of contradictions Good fortune is concerned with goals and finds companions To ride in a wagon that goes out searching We are flowers of a time of life, bunched into a wreath Learning and making confusion for each other Extending along the growth of vines, under leadership many times That made us into crowds or passers-by Disappearing on the desert, refracted to the shore Three years past we were raising hell and getting married Aboard boats we were coming, plotting a life-death course, plumbing philosophy Like a sharp blade through bamboo We grasped the key point, crossed snowy mountains and holy rivers We came over the ocean, all set to solve our housing problem We came over the desert to do something about food and clothing We came from two sides, knocking at a border gate to ask about taboos Passing through winter and iceblocks, into a skin's fine texture Gripping hopeless instruments, organs of suspiration Comprehending, and getting to the heart of it From directions of labor and harvest we came From the seed side and the fruit side we came By way of self-study, to be among the people Our camels were reflected onto an island, the shadow of our tiller was cast into a book To become phenomena, ethereal shapes One taking place of another, imagining each other Proceeding straight ahead, finding form in logic We summed up our inquiries and developed toward another front Crossing small rivers, marshes and onto a main road With pattern of branches fixed in our hearts, we were miles off the subject From directions of food and clothing we come to the city From good side and bad side we come onto the street With fine-chiseled features, when we meet yelling "Let's have a drink! " Regretting we met so late, we are bunched together by marriage And divided by technology Three years of rewarming the past to learn anew, throwing ourselves into love In new places disappearing, then back to the old to make our pleas Three years later we go westward through the pass, running ahead of our knowledge Causing the streets to be crowded, the definitions to shift Whatever you think about it, we have grown many, we cannot diminish From directions of the one and the divided we come, carrying poetry books and daggers As soon as we meet love reduces us by one Passing through a city of towers, shapes are cast onto the shore, never to return From directions of the one and the divided we come again Working hard at our studies, spitting blood in our teens Conscientious, strong-willed, bursting with talent Delving often into philosophy and fertility, smacking a stone with eggs From the seed side and the fruit side we come to a village Exchanging our insights and giving encouragement From directions of selling and buying we come to a market town In the exchange disappearing, turning into pearls Into her embroidered kerchief, as she streaks ahead of her husband Who was given her first love and remembrance Ring of horses hitched to a water wheel, just so far apart We choose people by their looks From the surface we come In modes of warp and woof we are suddenly enwoven We throw ourselves into textile-making, giving shape to stitchwork patterns, raise our heads and there is love In fine-embroidered clothes we throw ourselves into the revolution and run into leaders again We go into circulation, cross over borders, and earn back one of ourselves It is dreams that have us, there is no substance or its opposite Whichever way you figure, all are figures in imagination On the outside walking, yet precisely corresponding to inner being