(1968– )
Born in Fujian and raised in Zhejiang, Yu Xinqiao is one of the most popular and important poets in China today. His maternal grandfather was a wealthy overseas businessman, a factor that doomed Yu’s prospects in a period when the Communist ideology pitched the working class against the “exploitive” class. A middle school dropout, Yu became a popular speaker on the subjects of poetry and Chinese culture in the years following the June 4 crackdown. In 1993 he called for a “Chinese Renaissance Movement,” a proposal welcomed by many but frowned upon by the government. He was subsequently jailed for eight years on dubious charges. While many mainstream journals, in fear of censorship, shy away from his work, Yu is tremendously popular among Chinese readers. His poem “If I Have to Die,” set to music, was a big hit; even real estate developers borrowed his lines for use on billboards.
What you didn’t ignite
Can’t be called fire
What you haven’t touched
Can’t be called sapphire
Ah you, you’re finally here
As soon as we meet
My heart breaks into bits
The whole world crumbles
Your beauty is an unsheathed blade
What you didn’t kill
Has no reason to live
What you didn’t shatter
Can never be patched together
If I have to die in this life
I must die in your hand
In my country
Only you have not read my poetry
Only you have not loved me
When you find my grave
Please select the prettiest spring day
Walk the sunniest path
And come apologize to me
If there’re raindrops
Ask them to fall another day
If the milkweed hasn’t yet blossomed
Ask them to bloom instantly
In my sunlit country
In my moonlit country
In my well lit country
Only you have not read my poetry
Only you have not loved me
You’re the only shadow in my bright land
You must apologize to the sky
Apologize to the clouds
Apologize to the mountains and rivers
Finally apologize to me
Finally say: If Yu Xinqiao were still alive
How great would that be
The Dead Are Mourning the Living
It’s time
Lily-white and jade-green Chinese
Demolishes in silence all platforms of good-bye
A voiceless train
Slows down in Tang and Song poetry
At present I wish
This country, addicted to forgery
Can at least speed up forgery today
Let all the calamities
All the deaths
At least turn out to be fictional today
Let earthquakes happen only in heaven
Let beautiful lies cover the earth
Ah, it’s time
The dead are mourning the living
I’m from the most beautiful country
Where filth and chaos are only a legend
The only trash to clean up
Are the fresh flowers littering the fields
I’m from the freest country
Where prison never exists
No wrongful conviction, or false claim
Anytime anywhere we’re free to dream
Where fault finders throng in number
But even among thistles and thorns
There is no bone to pick
Listen, I don’t agree you are happy
I’m from the country of truth
Except for ours, there’s no other path
(Translated by Yunte Huang)