Paul Welch

A Group of Poems on Environmental Protection

A Group of Poems on Environmental Protection

in the original Chinese

They Greened the Metropolis

They suddenly greened this grey city,
but why isn’t anyone out pruning it?
Aha! It’s all Astroturf.

Inclining Together Towards Death

We call the industrialized Yellow Sea the Red Sea,
and the industrialized Red Sea the Black Sea.
In the end, we can call them all the Dead Sea.

Fresh Water Gets Fresh

Fresh water wants to change its reputation:
Something like ZhuoShuiXi* is more apt,
and HeiLongJiang** is the most realistic.


*A river in Taiwan, lit. “Muddy Water Stream”
**River and Province in Northeastern China, lit. “Black Dragon River”
Translated by Paul Welch
“A Group of Poems on Environmental Protection” is from Selected Poems of Wind Lynn (The Milky Way Publishing Co., 2004).