Poems of Fei Yifei [China]

Fei Yifei [China]

Watching the Sunset 

The mountain is perfect for watching. The sun sinks westward

Unhurried

Wearing a dusky hat, it bows gently, like a ripening fruit

About to fall off the branch

The stream flows out of the valley, babbling along

Unable to stop a hurried pinecone tumbling downhill

A mountain bird, unwilling to be lonely

Accompanies the slow fading of the dusk with sporadic warbles 

The sun steps further away

Closer and closer to the sea, to an unknown shore

Of course, nothing can be foreseen 

—I know this: living is 

To send things off

Until one day someone stands before me

To send me off

As for where I will go in the end

Now I cannot yet answer

Watching a Kingfisher

As the kingfisher dives

I am sitting by the lake

The setting sun, in its bright way

Records the drawing of a beautiful arc

A blue flash stirs a tiny ripple on the lake surface

And then all vanishes, followed by suffocating silence

I hold my breath, as if waiting for an underwater explosion 

I’m startled that beneath such bright feathers 

Hides the heart of a predator

And even the tiniest lives embody the law of the jungle

But what happens next surprises me even more

Far beyond what I foresee in this killer

It bursts from the water

Returns to the treetop, shakes off droplets

And feeds its prey

To another kingfisher

Unease

When the courtyard feels perfect

With all the plants being in harmony, and birds singing sweetly

You may grow uneasy

Thinking there should be some sharpness, some quarreling

Why not plant some roses or briers

Lady Banks rose is tough inside, an ideal conqueror here

With inexhaustible youth

It follows no rules, growing wildly against the wind

After a heavy rain, the once peaceful place

Fills with thorns brandished in defiance

With unruly spreading and exuberance

Savage defines this battlefield, yet bees and butterflies

Dance even more wildly

Standing among them, you will feel aflame

Even imagining yourself one of them

Because this is life. True abundance

Requires some chaos

Truly great love demands an exchange

Of possession and pain

Now, I Begin to Love Myself

I always

Forced myself to love the world

For fear that without such desperate love

This world, not wealthy at all

Might overlook me

Or regard me differently

Now, I begin to love myself

For I have come to realize

I can no longer afford to love this world

My love being limited

I should love something easier

Or, let me put it this way

If I don’t love myself

Nor can I love this world

(Translated by Prof. Shi Yonghao)

About the author:

Fei Yifei, an outstanding contemporary Chinese poet, was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. In his early years, he served in the army and served as the head of the military training department in a certain Air Force unit, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. He has published poetry collections such as My River and Walking and Loving, as well as several collections of prose and documentary literature. He has received awards including the 7th China Contemporary Poetry Award, the Excellent Work Award for Chinese Concise Prose, and Best Poet of the Year in 2024. Some of his poems have been translated into multiple foreign languages.