translated by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern
One person’s landscape
is monotonous and desolate
in the eyes of passersby,
like a forgotten word in the ocean of a dictionary,
an incomplete image in a broken lens.
With my eyes closed, I learn how to paint
by myself and in solidarity with you in my soul,
brighter with every stroke.
A blind person’s landscape,
as it’s of one heart and mind,
is unfettered, unrestrained.
Even when imprisoned
you can reach
the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
4/1997
From Empty Chairs (Graywolf Press, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Liu Xia. Used with the permission of Graywolf Press.