Poem of the Week: Perhaps... - Shu Ting

Hi everyone,

This week's poem is by a Chinese poet named Shu Ting, who's real name is Gong Peiyu. She grew up in the China's Cultural Revolution, where she was a young, rebellious, clandestine poet, but these days she's accepted and even applauded by her nation's rulers. This poem explores 'the loneliness of an author': that doubt we feel that the things we believe in, the things we live for, will come to nought and mean nothing. But Perhaps... is not a poem about doubt - it's a poem about hope.



Perhaps...
by Shu Ting
for the loneliness of an author

Perhaps these thoughts of ours
             will never find an audience
Perhaps the mistaken road
             will end in a mistake
Perhaps the lamps we light one at a time
             will be blown out, one at a time
Perhaps the candles of our lives will gutter out
             without lighting a fire to warm us

Perhaps when all the tears have been shed
             the earth will be more fertile
Perhaps when we sing praises to the sun
             the sun will praise us in return
Perhaps these heavy burdens
             will strengthen our philosophy
Perhaps when we weep for those in misery
             we must be silent about miseries of our own

Perhaps
Because of our irresistible mission
We have no choice

Translated from the Chinese by Carolyn Kizer
from Carrying Over (c) 1988. Copper Canyon Press.