Face of Age
Taking a photo of my right face with a camera
My half-century old hand is not steady
It shakes slightly
Blurring and discoloring my face
Delete, shoot it again !
Like a proud young man refusing to be defeated
Delete, shoot it again !
Shooting blindly without hesitation
Shooting away
My youth
Dirt climbs on
My shackled ankles
Rust spreads around
The trophies awarded to me
I’ve lost the ferocious temper
Reported by the crime sheet news
And my name and smile have
Faded from literary periodicals
Burying the past glory in memory
My hand stops shaking
Lighting a cigarette
Then taking a photo of my left face
And changing the setting from color
to black-and-white
Pek-êng Koa is an acclaimed Taiwanese poet. He taught himself writing in Taiwanese during his 17-year incarceration, due to two charges of robbery. He has won more than thirty literature awards throughout his writing career.
Translator:
C. J. Anderson-Wu is a writer and translator from Taiwan, her writing focuses on human conditions, human rights, political injustice and state violence.