To retain the wind and other poems by He Zhaolun
He Zhaolun, is an excellent poet in contemporary China. He is of Manchu nationality, and was born in 1970 in Jinzhou of Liaoning Province, China. Now he lives in Linghai City of Jinzhou. He is member of Chinese Writer’s Association, Vice Dean of Poetry Creation Research Society of Jinzhou Writers’ Association, vice chairman of Jinzhou Music Literature Society, the Dean of June Poetry Society. His works have been published in over one hundred domestic and overseas magazines and newspapers, and some have featured in numerous poetry anthologies. He has won many poetry prizes. His published poetry collections include：Indebted to Life, Days in Love with Sunshine, and Snow Falling in Liaoning. He works in the Jinzhou Office of Liaoning Provincial Rural Credit Cooperatives.
The Love I Want to Say
Perhaps
The snow of the 90s is a love letter between fingers
Suffusing with the love I want to say
The snowfall is not heavy
The same is the love I want to say
Like two sparrows in love under the eaves
Always together, life or death
Not to mention Andersen’s fairy tales
And not to mind the little snow added to the forehead of yore
We are still in the hometown
To get warmth from an old book which has been read years ago
Dear, it is true, I believe
When Mother Fails to Think about Love
When Mother fails to think about love
Father covers his chest when he is coughing ceaselessly
While puffing on his tobacco pipe
The setting sun is aging gradually
To accompany the love of “person more lean than yellow flowers”
Mother fails to think about it
With a tobacco pipe in his mouth, Father does not know what to say…
In chewing wild vegetables the brilliance of youth fails to be chewed
In tasting the fragrance of wheat the sweetness of past events fails to be tasted
When Mother fails to think about love
She ponders and meditates
Feeling to be able to gather a handful of dirt
Which is more assured of heart than gathering adequate gold and silver?
She says, love is like a thimble
It is warmth when pain is suffered
When Mother fails to think about love
Father fails to recall the past events
They have no way, only to cover their chests…
Keeping the messy life before the eyes
Coughing ceaselessly
我想要说的爱情
也许
那场九十年代雪是一直夹在指间的情书
蔓延着我想要说的爱情
那场雪不大
我想要说的爱情也一样
就像柴檐下相爱着的两只麻雀
生与死都在一起
不说安徒生的童话故事
也别在意往事的额鬓又多了些许小雪
我们还在故乡
一本当年读过的旧书里相互取暖
亲，相信这是真的
当母亲想不起爱情
当母亲想不起爱情
父亲除了捂着胸口不停地咳喘
就是大口大口的旱烟
夕阳慢慢变老
陪走“人比黄花瘦”的情恋
母亲想不起来多少
父亲叼着旱烟，也是无从语焉——
嚼野菜嚼不出青春的灿烂
咂麦香咂不出往事的浓酽
当母亲想不起爱情
便琢磨来琢磨去
总觉得能攒够一把土
远比攒足金银细软还要心安
她说，爱情好比一只顶针
忍住疼痛就是温暖
母亲想不起来爱情
父亲再也想不起来往事
他们没办法，只好捂着胸口——
守在眼前乱糟糟的这辈子
不停地咳喘
Five Thousand Years: Looking Homeward
How many periods of time have died of tiredness on the way?
How many postmen spend their remaining years in their hometown?
In the spring of 2015
I look forward, and then backward
The ancient blue sky and white clouds sail here
Slowly advancing into the village-town where Mother has never coughed…
Kitchen smoke through five thousand years, turns like a river to slow down
To embrace happiness, gradually congealing
To Retain the Wind
To retain the wind. Let it blow red flames
The happy heart contains private words
I want to marry a wild flower
The princess without a name
To be my pretty bride
To retain the wind. Let it blow my village
To blow green seedlings and blow yellow corn and rice
O autumn, for whom to make articles of jewelry of pure gold
To pile them on the ground and dreamland
To retain the wind. It blows the loneliness of a person
It blows off the pain from shedding tears
For me to bear in mind my parents’ love
Like the moonlight: unselfish, profound, into the bone…
五千年：望故乡
有多少时光累死在路上
有多少邮差终老于策马扬鞭的故乡
我在2015年的春天
向前瞅瞅，也向后望望
古老的蓝天和白云尾随而来
正缓缓推进母亲咳喘过的村庄小镇……
五千年的炊烟，犹如一条河流转身慢下来
乃至与幸福搂在一起，逐渐凝固
把风留住
把风留住。让它吹红红的火焰
幸福的心藏着私语
我娶一朵野花
这没有名字的公主
做美丽的新娘
把风留住。让它吹我的村庄
吹绿禾苗吹黄稻谷
秋天啊，为谁打造一千枚纯金的饰物
堆满大地和梦乡
把风留住。让它吹一个人的孤独
吹落泪水时感觉的疼
让我铭记爹娘的爱
像月光一样：无私、深远，一直埋进骨头……
Spring Is an Upstream Fish
Spring is an upstream fish
When I see her it is the Waking of Insects
The penetrating wind seems to fall in love in the bone
I know the upstream fish does not tell lies
The fingertips of spring never open the moonlight of yore
Never blaspheme the devoted love, clenching the teeth
Thus — grass blowing in the wind, the soul and dewdrops under false alarm time and again
When I see her
Spring is tight-lipped
As if intending to hide the entanglement between clover and the hometown
Attempting to set the shy fish
Back to its pre-life
Actually I believe you
In Andersen’s fairy tales there is weakness of the mermaids
The wind blows the pre-life and after-life
Be sure to face the person in love
And fill to brim medicinal liquor
Never blaspheme the devoted love, clenching the teeth
Thus — grass blowing in the wind, the soul and dewdrops under false alarm time and again
Tell me spring is this fish
Which has been sleeping upstream for one thousand years
春天是上游的一尾鱼
春天是上游的一尾鱼
我看见她的时候竟然惊蛰了
好透的风似乎要从骨头里谈一场恋爱
我知道上游的鱼不会说谎
春天的指尖从来不启封陈年的月光
从来不亵渎粉身碎骨的爱情，咬紧牙关
就这样——风吹草动，灵魂和露珠经受一次次虚惊
我看见她的时候
春天竟然守口如瓶
似乎有意隐藏三叶草与故乡的纠缠
试图把羞涩的鱼
放回前生
其实我相信你
安徒生故事里有美人鱼的懦弱
风吹前生又吹来世
一定要面对所爱的人
斟满药酒
从来不亵渎粉身碎骨的爱情，咬紧牙关
就这样——风吹草动，灵魂和露珠经受一次次虚惊
告诉我春天就是这一尾鱼
在上游已沉睡千年
© He Zhaolun