An Old Man Poem by Jiang Haizhou

An old man has been sitting there in the shade of a big green camphor tree for all the afternoon.
In back of him, there is an ancient temple, much older than him, without doors and windows.
Inside of it, there is a sexless Bodhisattva looking at the view of the old man's back all the time.

The old man stands up and, with hands clasped behind back, strolls back to his home.
After a while, he slowly steps out again with his dog.
The dog is following him and wigwagging its tail,
Silently, they go across a golden setting-sun spread earth wall,
The old man goes out of the foot of a hill and staggering across a streamlet……
Slightly rising grief is the surrounding area of his wife's tomb.
The old man squats himself down and fishes out his tobacco pipe, keeps looking at the grass on the tomb.
The loyal dog is also squatting down, listening to the voice of the two persons.

The setting sun has sunk down, the old man stands up and to keep looking over the distant mountains.
The setting sun has sunk down, the dog stands up also to keep looking over the distant mountains.
How can the dog know about the brick pagoda there once built by the master of the distant mountains.
How can the dog hear the suona horn once blown by the sending party to escort the bride in the distant mountains.

The setting sun has gravitated to the bottom,
As the setting sun, the old man lights up the oil lamp in his room.

The autumn of 1983