The Heart of the North
Bai Hua wrote this poem during his Cheney Fellowship residency with us in Leeds. The English translation is by Austin Woerner, Hannah Walker and Ouyang Yizhi.
Leeds, northern heart of England
The summer sun jumps up in the middle of the night
It's 16 June 2025 and I am awake
I open the window and the sky is poetry
Dangling from its spire is a dark church
I know will be its centre
It’s four in the morning and already bright outside
A homeless man walking into the sun gives me a thumbs up
Another one sitting in front of the supermarket smiles at me
Is this why we remember our pasts
Is this why we fall in love with the present
The chill morning stuns me and elates me
"My heart’s in the highlands," I sang when I was young
My heart’s under an old tree by St John’s Church
Now, I am living here
Here my home is surrounded by churches
Here the stone buildings have a rainwashed beauty
Everything is pristine here, nothing has changed
—27 October 2025
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Hannah Walker is an alumna of the University of Leeds BA in Chinese course.
Ouyang Yizhi is an MA student currently studying English Literature at the University of Leeds School of English.