{"id":4788,"date":"2017-06-22T14:11:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T14:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4788"},"modified":"2017-06-22T14:13:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T14:13:25","slug":"lake-shore-xue-di","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=4788","title":{"rendered":"LAKE SHORE – Xue Di"},"content":{"rendered":"

A narrow path to the shore flickers across the water’s face. I will gather time and smiles along the way. My eyes slide down the sky\u2019s long green corridor. The setting sun is a distant bee\u2019s nest: their wings beat gold on the water, fanning my dreams on the silent shore.
\n 
\nDusk spreads slowly. Its colors slip beneath my hand. Like a shadow revealing its every thought\u2014ripples on my cold, clear heart. Grass, clumped and idle, turns a deeper green. As I wait in silence, crickets on the shore sing my age.
\n 
\nMy heart follows the shimmering path, gathering the fruit of the lotus. I bury my face in the shade of the seed pod. I stop at the water’s edge: the forest disperses a flock of my thoughts. A long bench, exquisite and tranquil. The bell of my youth tolling in moonlight.
\n 
\nHow soft and susceptible the years have grown. Lotus petals flutter down as I chant my loneliness. Lines of poetry torn from my fingertips leave traces of light along summer\u2019s evening boulevard. I am too full of joy to make anything happen: Lying in a boat amidst so much green, seeking the lit path that shines through the night.
\n 
\n 
\ntranslated by Hil Anderson and Sue Ellen Tompson
\n 
\nPoet Xue Di is a native of Beijing who left China after taking part in the 1989 demonstrations in Tian\u2019anmen Square; he has been a fellow in Brown\u2019s Freedom to Write program since 1990. Since coming to Providence, Xue Di has published three books in English translation, Flames<\/em> (paradigm press, 1995), a cycle of poems dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh, Heart into Soil<\/em> (Burning Deck\/Lost Roads Press, 1998), and Circumstances<\/em> (Duration Press, 2000). Three volumes of Xue Di\u2019s collected works, prepared for publication in mainland China in 1999, were stopped in press due to governmental censorship. In the same year, Xue Di received a grant from the Joukowsky Foundation that has allowed him to remain at Brown and continue his writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A narrow path to the shore flickers across the water’s face. I will gather time and smiles along the way. My eyes slide down the sky\u2019s long green corridor. The setting sun is a distant bee\u2019s nest: their wings beat gold on the water, fanning my dreams on the silent shore.   Dusk spreads slowly. [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4788"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4871,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4788\/revisions\/4871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}