Tiger and Gazelle

By Zhai Yongming
Translated By Wang Ping

Translated from the Chinese

Midnight         someone whispered at my ear:
I’m awake, but you’re still sleeping

The world runs like a tiger                     chasing
You on and on             in your dreams
Everything in the world is like this tiger
Chasing you together
This thin-legged gazelle
They’re your eternal predators
Even in your dreams     even in the empty space

Dawn 2021                     first day of the Chinese New Year
I was reading Ma Yan’s poems
Chewing each word slowly, then swallowing the sentence
I turned on the desk lamp       the face that appeared
On my phone     was it me or tiger?
The tiger was reciting the poem             I was moving my mouth
Was she spitting stars
One by one, dazzling?
Was she being chased like this
Captured           vanished
In the abyss?

Did she wake up in the dark
Or was it me who died in the light?
That tiger leapt out of the corner
To catch you       its sharp claws
No! Its sharp knife plunged into your flesh
Slicing you into pieces
Into halos

This is how stars spit
Beauty     one by one         eternally
 

Notes:

This poem is part of the portfolio “Wind Crossing Grasses: Poems from Poems from China’s Dragon Rivers.” The folio is an excerpt from the forthcoming anthology of the same name, translated and edited by Wang Ping, with a co-introduction from Gary Snyder (Kinship Poetry Press, 2026). You can read the rest of the folio in the July/August 2025 issue. 

Source: Poetry (July/August 2025)