The Poetic Route

The Poetic Route

in the original Chinese

Routes are where we walk about
And poems are what we have thought out
Now
What of the poetic route?
My parents taught me ‘walk the way ahead’
Teachers lit lamps along the scholars’ road
Friends lured me toward paths of riches instead
And others would steer me to God’s abode
No doubt, yet
What of the poetic route?

Translated by Paul Welch
“The Poetic Route” is from Selected Poems of Wind Lynn (The Milky Way Publishing Co., 2004).