© by Bei Dao (b. 1949)
Translation by Bonnie S. McDougall (b. 1941)

Language: English  after the Chinese (中文) 
When I whet the knife with dawn’s faint light
I find the spine getting sharper
while the blade stays blunt
the sun flares
the crowds in the high street
are trees in huge shop windows
the silence roars
I see the stylus gliding
across the tree stump’s rings
towards the centre

Composition:

    Set to music by Liza Lim (b. 1966), "Crowds of the living", 2018 [ soprano, percussion and chorus ], from Atlas of the Sky, no. 5

Text Authorship:

Based on:

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Researcher for this page: Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-14
Line count: 10
Word count: 51