Yeovil Train Station
I’m the only one in the Yeovil train station
The setting sun is pinning a badge on England
The last person on Earth
waiting for the last train on Earth to arrive
Time is sleeping in the departure screen
Place-names churn in the long thin rectangle
A few poetry books stuck into the bookshelf in the waiting room
echo as no one reads them, announcing the unknown and the limitless
Everywhere is quiet, and from cracks beneath the rails
comes the music of crickets, telling of joys, bewilderments, farewells
At the autumn wind’s command, a train pulls into the station
intent on plunging into a cold, distant rain
The station is a notion in my head
So this is how boundless life can be – on I go, alone
September 2019
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Zhang Jingyi is a student enrolled in the MA Conference Interpreting and Translation Studies course at University Leeds.