The Street Sweeper
Compared to the town’s undulating streets
the street sweeper is passive
he is easier to put a price on
than the green uniforms and lightweight raincoats
of the postmen
he has twice the happiness on his face
as a title won or stripped away
compared to a prizewinning literary hack
he is humbler than the scooters
lonelier than the dam
more purposeless and arbitrary
than the clouds, the autumn wind, the checkpoints
tactfully avoiding the military base
he pretends to watch the hot air balloon
skimming over a sand barge
It doesn’t matter to him how much romance
a drifting anchor must dredge up
to restore a past chapter
or how many memories multiply from a scar
compared to the high and mighty, he
is scrupulously mediocre
his broom’s motions smooth the air
and bend the air, his extra pair
of legs like strange grudging insects
compared to a well-clothed, well-fed city
turned out by assembly line
compared to a filth greater than cleaning
compared to a street bigger than himself
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.