What One Can Bear – Lưu Hiểu Ba

What One Can Bear – Lưu Hiểu Ba
For my suffering wife

You said to me
“I can bear anything”
with stubborn eyes you faced the sun
until blindness became a ball of flame
and the flame turned the sea to salt

Beloved
let me ask you through the dark
before you go to your grave, remember
to write me a letter with your ashes, remember
to leave me your address in the netherworld

Your bone-shards will lacerate the page
so you cannot complete a single word
the shattered brushstrokes will pierce your heart
and the scorching heat of your insomnia
will surprise you

A stone that has borne the weight of the world
is hard enough to break my skull
the white lozenges formed from my brains
will poison our love
and our poisoned love
will poison our selves

In the labor camp, December 28, 1996, my birthday
Translated…