A Visit

This poem is an English translation selected from the first section, "A Visit" (巡礼), of the Chinese poetry journal Workers' Poetry Selection (《打工诗选刊》).

Late Arrival

For years, I have drifted, more rootless than a feather,
From Daliangshan to Jiaxing, filling down jackets in a factory.
They called me "Duck Head," and I lost my copy of The Guidebook.

For years, the village aged in my absence.
Now, a muddy path in Xiaoxingchang
Rejects my new shoes but welcomes my tears.

For years, my universe still takes the shape of a tiger,
As the Bimo reciting the ancient Meige said—
Trembling villages leap into my eyes, tearing at me.

For years, my childhood friends have built their houses tall,
And I have returned to the heart of the earth, to my rammed-earth home:
Three hearthstones, three pillars holding up the roof.

My father smiles, smoking his orchid tobacco by the fire,
Like a warm scripture I can’t stop reciting.
His walking stick has grown taller.

And my mother smiles, alive in my heart.
Tonight, I will sleep in her old bed.
Tonight, I must dream.

Jike Ayou: The first Yi migrant worker poet in Chinese history, born in 1985 in Puge County, Sichuan. One of the six protagonists in the documentary The Verse of Us, a film about worker-poets.

《迟到》

好些年了，我比一片羽毛更飘荡
从大凉山到嘉兴，我在羽绒服厂填着鸭毛
我被唤作“鸭头”时遗失了那部《指路经》
好些年了，村庄在我的离去中老去
此刻它用一条小兴场的泥路
反对我的新鞋，欢迎我的热泪
好些年了，我的宇宙依然是老虎的形状
一如引用古老《梅葛》的毕摩所说
颤抖的村寨跳进我的眼瞳，撕咬我
好些年了，儿时的伙伴已建起小楼
我也回到了大地的中心，我的土掌房
三块锅庄石，三根顶梁柱
父亲笑呵呵在火塘边抽兰花烟
像温暖的经书，让我念诵不已
他的拐杖又长高了不少
而母亲笑呵呵在我心里
今夜我要睡在她的旧床上，今夜我必须做梦

吉克阿优：中国历史上第一个彝族打工诗人，1985年生于四川普格县，工人诗人纪录片《我的诗篇》六个主人翁之一。