The Doctor
Where the street turns east
at the fretting of a dog-eared page
in a little bone-setting clinic the doctor is in
a map of the body’s joints spread on his knees
his head in a thicket of meridians
sometimes giving the emptiness a twist
reenacting the deft gesture
everyone here marvels at
he’s taken out the grotesque formula
added ninety-nine drops of spring rain
three-year aged mugwort powder
and a pinch of the bustling cityfolk
such is the sickness of the times!
on the reverse side of the remedy
the truth and the absurdity
have taken pride of place
but he has an incurable inner pain
he walks, bent and shuffling
as if someone different is hidden inside him
if he were to move faster, the startling secret
would fall out
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Zhang Fan is an MA student currently studying English Literature at the University of Leeds School of English.