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Poetry

Before a Birth

By Zhang Shaomin
Translated from Chinese by Berlin Fang

A pregnant cow walks in the field
Listening to frogs, cicadas, birds
With an attention greater than ever before
She smells the grass, the crops

Whatever she hears
It is new
Whatever she smells
It is new

When the little calf is born
It already knows what the village is all about

By arrangement with the authors. Translations copyright 2008 by Berlin Fang. All rights reserved.

English

A pregnant cow walks in the field
Listening to frogs, cicadas, birds
With an attention greater than ever before
She smells the grass, the crops

Whatever she hears
It is new
Whatever she smells
It is new

When the little calf is born
It already knows what the village is all about

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