Absent

vast winds commanding hostile flags
Venus fills all four directions with its lone cry
love and hate bit into the same apple
and now it's the age for climbing ladders
it's the pipe-dream of national renaissance
heroes defending night skies raise their arms high
clowns in a mirror doing handstands on asphalt

I close the door parole proffers
refuse all those witnesses to the future
these moments are mine to savor dignity in solitude
fire of the venture
ash of the unknown

Bei Dao, Forms of Distance, David Hinton (trad.), New Directions Books, 1994.