Bei Dao

I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man

Bei Dao (simplified Chinese: 北岛; traditional Chinese: 北島; pinyin: Běidǎo; literally: "Northern Island", August 2, 1949 - ) is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai (S: 赵振开, T: 趙振開, P: Zhào Zhènkāi). Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.

Quotes

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

The August Sleepwalker, trans. Bonnie S. McDougall (New York: New Directions, 1990), ISBN 978-0811211314

I don't believe the sky is blue:
I don't believe in thunder's echoes;
I don't believe that dreams are false:
I don't believe that death has no revenge.

Freedom is nothing but the distance
between the hunter and the hunted.

• Let me tell you, world,
  I—do—not—believe!
  If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet,
  Count me as number one thousand and one.

  I don't believe the sky is blue:
  I don't believe in thunder's echoes;
  I don't believe that dreams are false:
  I don't believe that death has no revenge.
  • "The Answer", p. 33

• I am no hero
  In an age without heroes
  I just want to be a man
  • "Declaration", p. 62

• I will not kneel on the ground
  Allowing the executioners to look tall
  The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
  • "Declaration", p. 62

• Freedom is nothing but the distance
  between the hunter and the hunted
  • "Accomplices", p. 89

• we are not guiltless
  long ago we became accomplices
  of the history in the mirror
  • "Accomplices", p. 89

• a perpetual stranger
  am I to the world
  I don't understand its language
  my silence it can't comprehend
  • "A perpetual stranger...", p. 110
  • Variant translation:
    • In the world I am
      Always a stranger
      I do not understand its language
      It does not understand my silence

External links

• Bei Dao at the Poetry Foundation