A Place Called Picun
Have you heard of a place called Picun, my friend?
Do you know how deep the Wenyu River runs?
Have you heard of us drifters out beyond the Fifth Ring, shedding our barren dreams one by one?
Do you know how many planes fly over us
How many of us clock out each day
How much we make each month
How much rent we pay
How many of us live like spinning tops
Not loving, not hating, just getting by
And growing older, year after year
Do you know how many of us live like weeds
Crying and hurting, and always running
But never escaping the blade of reality
Tell me, my friend, have your hopes blossomed?
Has your love born fruit?
Or does your life feel like an abyss, and you're still struggling to get out?
Is your path like mine, full of twists and turns
Never leading to the world you're longing for?
Are you so lonely you can't sleep?
Do you cry out in despair
With so many things you can't figure out
The answers to your questions blowing in the wind
Do you have a home to go back to?
Do you have a dream to follow?
Are you able to live true to yourself?
Or are you just clinging to life, like me?
Are you somewhere out there, feeling the same sorrow I feel here in Picun?
Lost in the bleak songs of the northern night
Singing of all the days and nights you've spent
Since the god of fate tossed you aside
Have you heard of a place called Picun, my friend?
Do you know how deep the Wenyu River runs?
Have you heard of us drifters out beyond the Fifth Ring, shedding our barren dreams one by one?
Translated by Austin Woerner and Morty Shiqi Zhang
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Morty Shiqi Zhang is an MA student currently enrolled in the English Literature course at the School of English, University of Leeds.