A Distant Center – Ha Jin

It revives the memories that never die — all the fields to be sown, the endless sweating with painful limbs, sleeping with clothes on at night, rising before daybreak to follow others to welcome a dry spring with a hoe or a shoulder pole. Here spring is another sight. On the town green toddlers wave their plump arms, the white soles of their feet following pigeons and geese on the grass.

But whenever you go out you can’t stop sneezing, your eyes itchy with tears, your nose red and swollen. Only through a window can you watch the kids and their mothers at play. In the kitchen the radio is loud. The show host has been talking happily with callers, so many of them phoning in to praise such a gorgeous day. True, your body rejects this spring, but still you must learn to praise. Praise everything burgeoning with life, the worms that come out for sunlight, the pollen that gives you hay fever, the snails drunk with rainwater, the houses that begin to take shape.

1kitap1.com/en You ought to admire the toads’ vitality. In a stream or a sewer they can live, often wild with joy. In the early spring they croak with gusto, giving you the illusion that large flocks of ducks and geese are paddling nearby. Look, they leap around like little birds attempting flight, though they have no wings. Neither do they have a waist, but they all swagger when they walk.

If they sit, they look like ministatues of Buddha, too dignified to rise. In fact, they can never stand up. 1kitap1.com/en Little wren, I know you love the eaves above my door, but you can’t build here. You trash the place and even shit on the door handle, soiling my hand again. Again I sweep away your embryo of a nest. You’ll return to restart your project. Little rascal, I won’t let you pile mud and grass here.

Even friends cannot share everything. There are eaves everywhere. Why are you so determined to settle above my door? 1kitap1.com/en See, here’re your brush and copybook. From now on you must practice calligraphy — copy four or five pages every day. You must be able not just to speak Chinese but also to inscribe it.

Handsome handwriting ensures a bright future. Every weekend you make me go to the Chinese school. I need more time for my homework in science and history and also have to read novels and plays in English. I have no time for copying characters. If you go on distracting me like this, I might have to repeat seventh grade. Don’t give us such an excuse.

Note to the Reader Copper Canyon Press encourages you to calibrate your settings by using the line of characters below, which optimizes the line length and character size: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Please take the time to adjust the size of the text on your viewer so that the line of characters above appears on one line, if possible. When this text appears on one line on your device, the resulting settings will most accurately reproduce the layout of the text on the page and the line length intended by the author.

Viewing the title at a higher than optimal text size or on a device too small to accommodate the lines in the text will cause the reading experience to be altered considerably; single lines of some poems will be displayed as multiple lines of text. If this occurs, the turn of the line will be marked with a shallow indent.

Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems. This e-book edition was created through a special grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Copper Canyon Press would like to thank Constellation Digital Services for their partnership in making this e-book possible. 1kitap1.com/en For Lisha 1kitap1.com/en Contents Title Page Note to Reader Dedication A SOLITARY TRAVELER 1.

You Must Not Run in Place 2. The Long-Distance Traveler 3. The Detached 4. Difficulties 5. Talent 6. Misfortune 7. The Choice of Exile 8. A 58-Year-Old Painter Leaving for America 9. In Saskatchewan 10. The Roads I Traveled 11. Missing Home 12. Cemetery MISSED TIME 1. Missed Time 2. Fire 3. Lullaby 4. Again, Speaking of Those I Once Loved 5. A Visitor 6. The One Following You 7. Surprise 8. An Ideal Life 9. Two Images 10. April HOME ON THE ROAD 1. A Snowstorm 2.

A New Hope 3. In the Springtime 4. Toads 5. A Tug of War 6. Copying Characters 7. A Small Boat 8. Choice of Hometown 9. Whether You Like It or Not 10. The Lost Moon ECHOES FROM FAR AWAY 1. The Cage 2. All You Have Is a Country 3. The Older Generation 4. The Last Wish 5. A Cabinet 6.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 0b49bb949416dc29
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 716,577 bytes (0.683 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781556594625, 9781619321878
• Pages: 86
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 38.35 minutes
• Total Words: 7,671
• Total Characters: 43,419
• Average Words per Page: 89.2
• Average Characters per Page: 504.87

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