Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Poetry

Trial Run

By Yau Ching
Translated from Chinese by Chenxin Jiang
"Trial Run" is one of four winning poems selected by David Tomas Martinez for the 2020 Words Without Borders–Academy of Americans Poets Poems in Translation Contest.
Listen to Chenxin Jiang read her translation of Yau Ching's "Trial Run"
 
 
·

as a door-nail
and gone          to the world
air           broke drop
nothing is certain but           and taxes
mask            knell            grip
blow             metal           rattle
food for worms sticky end brown bread
or alive valiant to the             la    la la
wish I were           yeah right you wish


“預習” © 2009 Yau Ching. By arrangement with the author. English translation © 2020 by Chenxin Jiang. All rights reserved.

English Chinese (Original)

as a door-nail
and gone          to the world
air           broke drop
nothing is certain but           and taxes
mask            knell            grip
blow             metal           rattle
food for worms sticky end brown bread
or alive valiant to the             la    la la
wish I were           yeah right you wish


“預習” © 2009 Yau Ching. By arrangement with the author. English translation © 2020 by Chenxin Jiang. All rights reserved.

預習


Listen to Yau Ching read “Trial Run” in the original Cantonese

未知生焉知
不能復生視    如歸  而無憾
出生入    一線間   生契濶
輕於鴻毛   而後已而復生
不瞑目不足惜
寧   不屈   鳴不默
一雞一鳴撐飯蓋鴨升天
憂患不終無安樂   啦    啦啦
未    得呢你就想


“預習” © 2009 Yau Ching. By arrangement with the author. All rights reserved.

Read Next