Blessings
On the first day Father tied the lamb to a tree
The children loved its hooves, its dark, human
eyes, its head lowered all day to graze, or sometimes
raised to gaze at the people looking at it
On the second day the children brought vegetables and biscuits
apples and pears... the lamb ate them unhurriedly
like an old man, crumbs falling from the corners of its mouth
Plants, motionless, seemed infected by its meekness
On the third day the grown-ups prepared the killing ground
They brought a big iron pot, a stone chopping block
a cold aluminum basin where ripples quivered
as the blood flowed in, like bubbling porridge purring
After they cut off its head they hung it from the tree
its eyes still open, its mouth open too, as if
still in the act of chewing. This was the fourth day
and the children decked it out with colourful ribbons
for it’s said this will bring divine blessings
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Ouyang Yizhi is an MA student currently studying English Literature at the University of Leeds School of English.