Eternal breast

 Un poema de Hu Xingwu,

     desde China

Cuando la naturaleza
     fermenta
incluso debajo de la misma lama


In the Sichuan earthquake, a mother died with her breast in her baby,s mouth…


In the dark ruins of the earthquake,

a young mother

stages her final song of life,

putting her selfless breast

into her baby´s mouth.



Perhaps the space is too small

for the mother to stretch her body.

She gets down on her knees

with her back blocking the fallen girder

and her warm breast pressing against the baby's face.



The breast gets cool and then cold,

too hard for the elixir to flow out.

But it possesses the power of mountains

to support the little life

until the rescuers come.



The child is saved,

but unwilling to leave his mother's breast.

He hopes it will relieve the grief of the earthquake,

he hopes it will sing praise of life.

He believes his mother's soul will never go away,

and will bear his mother's love in his mind and heart forever.



Oh, child,

let your mother rest

and her selfless breast.

If you miss your mother,

look, that tomb covered with green grass

is the eternal breast of your mother.




Por Hu Xingwu, traducción del mandarín al inglés de Luo Lianggong, Our common sufferings: An Anthology of World Poets in Memoriam 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.  Eds: Nie Zhenzhao y Luo Lianggong, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2008, pp: 161-63.