MCLC: Han Zongbao poem

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com<mailto:dujuan99 at gmail.com>>
Subject: Han Zongbao poem
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The following poem was written partly in response to the New Express/ Chen Yongzhou incident, as the author told me after he showed his poem around on Weibo. It has not been deleted, as far as Iknow. This is not one of those poems which act like condensed news articles, like Zhao Siyun's Lily's Story (see http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_68d111990101afbr.html) or Sheng Xue's Your Red Lips A Wordless Hole (http://blog.boxun.com/hero/201303/shengxue/1_1.shtml). The following poem is less straightforward. I like some parts, but I'm not sure about the overall literary quality. I also don't know who is meant by the following lines:

when an experienced questioner becomes a murderer/ her shining and glorious life/ produced how many deaths how many wrongs

Whose glorious life? The murdering questioners? Why "her"? The female pronoun seems to indicate a particular person.
I have posted a picture of the original on my blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_68d111990101m2i3.html

Martin

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Han Zongbao
TRIAL


judge kids by old people                       judge whites by blacks
judge black by white                  judge dusk by dawn
judge swallows by crows                       judge freedom by a bird in a cage
judge elephants by mice              judge butterflies by the eye of a storm
judge ants on a tree by fish in a bowl
judge times by their fools          judge jobless graduates by golden iphones

judge square by round               judge sea by sky
judge cotton by iron                  judge sheep and grassroots by tanks
the silent lambs, how meek they are!
judge art and writing by dynamite                       judge people by country
judge earth by snow                  judge jews by hitler
judge christ on the cross by judas and the last supper

judge shoes by feet      judge cities by villages
judge floods by tall dams          judge water by wells
judge football by whistle                        judge hawkers by city security
judge temporary workers by public servants       judge migrant laborers by residence permits
judge B by A     judge Second by First   judge crying by smiling
stars and the gunpowder in bullets have never been exposed to moisture

if the chessboard says you're guilty       then you are guilty
those people who died from secret questioning  those who died
when detained or arrested          they must have seen
the sullied red flag and the hands                       when an experienced questioner
becomes a murderer                  her shining and glorious life
produced how many deaths how many wrongs               written in blood

what kind of terror and torture
most one go through     before he prefers death to life
relentless questioning    what does it mean to him or her
everyone noticed his neck must have been stuck
but on tv they aired his confession
he put on his own trial of his text and the camera

we don't need courts we don't need laws            our nation doesn't need them
'cause the trial is completed       in this giant one-way judgment
everyone can be a criminal         just have to grab them
and put them inside       if they are tough bones their flesh can be done with
one after another gets thrown in jail        who will be the next one
what is it that's breaking up                    happy days and pleasant scenes

laws appear on worthless paper in restricted public trials
just like catwalks           once the process is in motion
once you get inside       your only trick is to confess
so confess       the grief of an innocent man      small traces of blood
and disgrace     tears are so helpless     just what you asked for
an innocent man in the end        hangs his head in confession     amen

2013-10-29

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