Always - CAT Center

Tokyo is not a choice

東京

我到過無數次的城市

只有迷路是永遠

Tokyo

a city I’ve been to countless times

only getting lost is permanent

what with the taxi driver’s always-white gloves

and your irritation

coming back to your place

is always a challenge

we both know we keep quiet we smile we

both have the pressure of distance of home

fastidious as the rows of store clerks outside Keio Department Store

bending (not bowing) to us

not a crease in their stockings if those women

had a choice they would not be bending in our direction always

Tokyo is not a choice

for you

me or them

_____

Yau Ching. “永遠” from 大毛蛋 [Big hairy egg]. Hong Kong: Kubrick, 2011.

Author

Yau Ching

Born in Hong Kong and educated in Hong Kong, New York, and London, Yau Ching is a poet, filmmaker, and scholar. She has authored more than ten books including The Impossible Home (2000), which won the Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature. Her website is www.yauching.com.

Translator

Chenxin Jiang

Chenxin Jiang (she/her) translates from Italian, German, and Chinese. Her most recent translation is for now I am sitting here growing transparent by Yau Ching for Zephyr Press. Other books include the PEN/Heim-winning The Cowshed by Ji Xianlin for New York Review Books and Tears of Salt by Pietro Bartolo and Lidia Tilotta for MacLehose and Norton, shortlisted for the Italian Prose in Translation Award. Chenxin grew up in Hong Kong and is now based in Denver; she serves as president of the board for the American Literary Translators Association.

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