Childhood Friendship
—To Hongzhu, My Friend
Tr. By Richard Tornello
To those without close affinity,
parting means forever.
Having strong appeal to each other
we were fated to meet again to continue our friendship.
After an interval of more than twenty years, when we met
though suffering a little hair loss, I saw you as still so pure.
Others appraise your today
but I can tell what you were when you were a little girl.
Who says you are already middle-aged?
My eyes clearly skipped that,
only seeing your childhood smiling face and glow.
There are shadows of your childhood,
In your moves.
I can make you return to the childhood-you
even without turning into a fairy to do it.
The brave you, who once took a pair of scissors
with one stroke cut my long braids short.
In those years
we led a sweet life
with empty purses.
In those years
we were as charming as lilys
though we couldn’t afford slip dresses.
We used to play under the same clover tree
in a pure land that refused pollution.
We used to sing in the same boat
on a holy water that didn’t tolerate infringement.
The puerility of our behavior,
then the junior years we got through together,
typecast both your life and mine.
Your childhood is mine
and mine is yours
It’s true
that mountains may changed into seas
and seas may change into mulberry fields.
But the unchangeable is childhood friendship,
it’s the most beautiful broad accent.
It’s the origin of life.
From there a cluster of white doves
sets out on a flight toward future.