A Little Flower
A little flower doesn’t know how beautiful she is
She has no such a concept
A little flower doesn’t even know her own name
Translation
Six Poems
Answers What others look for in the moon or the stars I look for in the rain between streetlamps
He Shuns Me
I’m shunned by my own husband, though I’ve done nothing shady.
He thinks of me as ancient. He relishes young ladies.
Arizona
See, my son, how the sun
promises another chance,
without words an oath
of blood between him and the bison.
June Is Almost Done
Nianxi Chen, born in 1970 at Danfeng, Shannxi Province, began writing poems in 1990. In 1999, he left his hometown and labored as a miner for 16 years across China. In 2015, he couldn’t continue as a miner due to occupational disease. In 2016, he was awarded the Laureate Worker Poet Prize. His poetry and life were featured in a 2018 documentary entitled Demolition Work about migrant worker poets in China.
An Old Man
An old man, stooped over the table, sits in the hubbub of a café’s middle, alone, a newspaper open before