JIANG Mo (China)
JIANG Mo was born in 1962, is an outstanding contemporary Chinese poet, a native of Yuechi, Sichuan Province. He is a member of China Water Conservancy Writers Association, a member of Sichuan Writers Association, and editor-in-chief of Little Novelist magazine. He is the author of poetry anthology “The Man Far Away”, prose-poetry anthology “Sea Rhythm”, “Strange Waters”, “Bygone Trees” and “A River Flowing Through the Forests”.
About the Bat
In my childhood, I once caught a bat
In the kitchen
While it was stealing salt
They are elfins out of the dark night
Neither birds nor mice
With hideous faces
Later I learn that they are mammals
Their children must be little babies
Cute while being breast fed
Maybe it is for the false evolution
Or the over degeneration
That bats become sightless
And they can only identify directions by ear
Or follow the smell of cooking smoke
Close as they have been to mankind
None they have ever hurt
Two Bats
Two bats fly into the homeland
One get caught
Steamed, and stir-fried
Its meat enters a man’s intestines and stomach
Viruses enter myriad people’s hearts and lungs
The other bat is still hovering overhead
Carrying rumors
Spreading them everywhere
Heart-attacking viruses
Duplicating, reproducing
It cannot intrude into our bodies
Or our cell phones
While we are engrossed in the phone screens
It is grinning grimly in darkness
The War
Viruses give up everything
Even including the basic cells
They have learned to lurk and forbear
To be strong and make full use of others
Being good at seizing chances for intrusion
Man is strong and agile in thinking
Armed with weapons and medicine knowledge
These self-styled masters of the earth
Once in a battle
Can resort to nothing but self-defense
Long has been man’s war with viruses
No end, no ultimate outcome
No gunpowder，no swords or spears
Yet there is still tear and blood shedding
On the sheets shrouding the dead is printed: introspection
Translated by SHI Yonghao
ATUNIS GALAXY POETRY 