Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

In the far and remote village of the west of Canton Province,
When my mother conceived me,
I curled up inside her tummy,
My mother bulged outside.

After I was born, crying,
I often slept in a cradle bearing a mosquito net.
My mother sang baby songs ceaselessly, squatting down outside.

When my mother carried me to transplant the rice seedlings,
Clout the ripe paddies and lay the grain to dry on the ground,
I lay down inside the carrying-belt on her back,
While my mother was busy outside.

When I grew up, during my childhood,
I sometimes wandered, playing with my little friends on the mountains,
While my mother constantly missed me at home.

When I went to study at Changling Primary School,
I sat in the classroom to listen to the lessons.
My mother, who let me grow then,
Often watched me from outside.

Afterwards I went alone faraway to study separating from my mother.
Then I stepped into society.
I always struggled outside.
But my mother, who still ploughed in the fields,
Always kept waiting for me at the village.

I’d always been longing to purchase an apartment in Shenzhen,
In which we could live together.

There was, however, one day before my wish would be fulfilled,
It was this day when
the relationship between my mother and me changed forever.
It was this day when
My 84-year-old mother suddenly passed away.
So from then on, my mother would lie forever inside the tomb.
At that time under the heavens the crow was crying,
The leaves were falling, and the incense and paper were burning.
We, who were grovelling with red and swollen eyes,
Tremblingly knelt down by the tomb, outside…

【Poet Bio.】Huang Guosheng was born in Nawu Town, Maoming, Guangdong, China in 1969. He won the Liangbin Fiction Prize and took 4th place in a national novel contest in China, as well as 10th place in national English writing competition in 2000. His novel Shenzhen Dream was longlisted for the 9th Maodun Literary Prize. His original English works had appeared in China’s Shenzhen Daily and American magazines Brilliant Flash Fiction and Wisconsin Review. He was the first and only author in China to be nominated by Malaysia for the Dublin Literary Award 2019. He works as an international businessman in Shenzhen, China.