第五十四章
ONE KIND OF VOICE
—About my poetry writing
I write poems, because my birth could have happened no sooner and clearly no later than the exact day of June 23, 1961.
I write poems, because I myself am a random event.
I write poems, because my parents are both of the Nuosu ethnicity; they aredescendants of Zhyge Alu, the divine hero of the Nuosu.
I write poems, because my grandfather was especially handsome, but my grandmother was a bit ugly.
I write poems, because I live in a small city called Zhaojue, where many Nuosu people and Han people live together. They seem quite familiar with each other, yet they also seem strange to each other.
I write poems, because I was hurt by someone as a child.
I write poems, because I always feel shy, yet I wish to express myself.
I write poems, because one summer I read a book by Ba Jin entitled Dream of the Sea.
I write poems, because I was aware of death very early.
I write poems, because my worries always outweigh my joys.
I write poems, because I had a Han Chinese nanny who often claimed there was a man in her hometown who could transform into a white tiger, and the tiger used to push open people抯 gates at night.
I write poems, because I often indulge in the wildest fantasies.
I write poems, because I am good at telling stories.
I write poems, because my uncle once came to my house in the city and said he planned to send off the ghosts from his house, for which he needed one sheep and eight cocks.
I write poems, because I sank twice into water over my head, but escaped death both times.
I write poems, because I have learned to swim well.
I write poems, because I believe all creatures on earth have souls.
I write poems, because I was admitted in 1978 to Southwest Minorities College, where I read the works of Qu Yuan and Mikhail Sholokhov.
I write poems, because I know my father is of the Guhou clan and my mother of Qunie clan, both of which seem full of mystery to me.
I write poems, because I am unable to explain myself.
I write poems, because I wish to distinguish good and evil. I worship Kafka and Dostoevsky.
I write poems, because Chinese and Nuosu are mixed in the central nervous system of my language; strangely enough, they were both originally written in pictographic scripts.