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A Picture

  • By Bei Dao

Morning arrives in a sleeveless dress apples tumble all over the earth

my daughter is drawing a picture

how vast is a five-year-old sky

your name has two windows

one opens towards a sun with no clock-hands

the other opens towards your father

who has become a hedgehog in exile

taking with him a few unintelligible characters

and a bright red apple

he has left your painting

how vast is a five-year-old sky

(Tiantian, the nickname given to the poet's daughter, is written in Chinese with two characters which look like a pair of windows. The same character also forms a part of the character for the word "picture.")

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