Jifeng: Don’t Say Goodbye
By Jifeng
Translated by Yiyan Han (c), last updated 2024-06-24
Homecoming gathering, once more
Words from decades ago all on the dining table
Childhood friends cheered on one another
For once revealed their true character
Again and again
I became their target man
Towards me everyone held an air blaster
And in the name of love blew high notes with laughter
………
Every time like this
I keep silent
Like an outsider
Who listens to their stories about a man some other
No explanation
Nor justification
Nor in high dudgeon
Sit myself there like a wooden dummy
Till cups and plates all empty
Till the dead of night
And waved goodbye as they left
To their own world
I turned around
And, once more, went invisible into the dark
In the former residence on November 1, 2020
Footnote:
Jifeng（季風）: A leading figure of the 1989 generation (that participated in the Tian-An-Men movement), a leader of the student movement (in 1989), a thinker in the dark, a lonely night walker who treads carefully, living away from home for more than 30 years, writing to make a living with the left hand, and to express ideas and feelings with the right hand. Had lived in Beijing for more than 20 years yet still not a Beijinger. Expelled recently from Beijing by the Chinese authorities. ― from his self intro on Twitter (八九季風 @jhf8964).
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