This poem was originally composed in Chinese and has been translated into English by the translator, Yan Li.
“A Man, He Wants to Plant a Tree Well”
After finishing a piece of work,
Take it away, and place it
In another place,
Out of your sight, so that
The wall becomes
A blank space again –
A very large blank space
One day in March, I saw
Seven people digging holes on a hillside
In less than an hour, six of them
had already left. Six young saplings
were left behind in the dusk
The remaining person
was still digging on the hillside
Perhaps he felt the hole was not deep enough
He knew the wind on the hill was strong,
The hole had to be deep enough and good-looking
As the sky gradually darkened,
I could still see a figure
Swinging there now
His tree has been planted
For many years, what I have been missing
Is still the white wall left behind in the past
I cannot go around it
As if the valley before me
As if the hillside now
Is clear and visible
One day in March,
I saw a man, he was planting a tree on a hillside
He dug the hole deep enough
And good-looking