Spring, 1947*
/by Sejo Pan
Sunlight frozen in this bitter cold air of early spring
My homeland hanging
In the airless space between sky and earth
Wayward yearning, drifting with the subtropical current
Comes across with the cold front from the continent
At this corner invisible on the map
Schools of fish in fearful panic, restlessly searching
The disappeared coast line.
The wind blows over the river bank,
Waves after waves of
Reeds lowering head to drop their tears
Half way to heaven,
Silent graves everywhere.
Standing on my own land, nostalgia nevertheless
Like callings from
Beyond a thousand springs, a lifetime away.
Half way to heaven, the short lived light dims out.
No blessings we long for from the sky above
No mercies to rest in the ground below either.
When the spring comes back again
I am still as young
The person waiting for me has gone.
In the lonesome quietness of heaven, I can still hear
When the row of gun shots fired by the river, at the playground.
The flower petals of heaven falling like soft spring drizzle
Are the dews prayed for in the human world, not granted.
On the dark streets leading not to the dawn
Blood gently complying, flowing into the dreams.
In heaven, the sorrow and love unable to relinquish
All fades into intangible morning mist
We close our eyes in peaceful happiness and say,
There are no, no memories like that.
* February 28, 1947. Holocaust in Taiwan conducted by the Chinese.