Valley
By Li Jianjun
Translated By Wang Ping
Translated from the Chinese
One morning in summer
I came upon a valley
With a school of horses
Sheep, larks, and ninety-nine apricot trees
I won’t reveal the valley’s name
This is my promise to the gods
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)