2024-01-22
Poem of the Week, week 4: He Dong "the last piece of ice"
Enjoy a weekly poem by authors from – or living in – in Norway, throughout the year.
THE LAST PIECE OF ICE
struggling to fit into
sunlight narrower than the body
I follow the sun’s retreat
squeeze myself together at the same speed
until the last beam
like a sword cuts my body in two
carve out the ice
the blue of my bones
clutching the body’s last piece of ice
I trade it with the sun
For that seventh life I pawned
He Dong
From the poetry collection stjernelysregn, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 2014
Translated by Yinni Hu in A Conversation with He Dong, Michelle Huang, Sine Theta Magazine, 11.04. 2021 at sinethetamag.medium.com.
See the poem in Norwegian
Poem of the Week
Learn more about the series and see all poems here
