I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron | by Xu Lizhi

I Swallowed a Moon Made of Iron

by Xu Lizhi¹

I swallowed a moon made of iron

They call it Screw

I swallowed the industrial effluent, orders of unemployment

The youths lower than machines have untimely died young

I swallowed the toil, swallowed the displacement,

Swallowed the overpasses, swallowed the life full of limescale

I can’t swallow any more

All I’ve swallowed down are surging out of my throat,

Spreading out across the territory of my country and becoming a

Poem of shame

December 19, 2013

Notes:

1. Xu Lizhi (Chinese: 许立志); (1990 – Oct 1, 2014), a Chinese poet and factory worker. Xu Lizhi worked for Foxconn in Shenzhen for about three years until his falling to die on Oct 1, 2014. It was probably a suicide, said police.

Header image:

Shenzhen, taken at the FREESKY Sightseeing Floor (541m) on the 116th floor of Ping An International Finance Centre

Translated in November, 2018

我咽下一枚铁做的月亮
许立志

我咽下一枚铁做的月亮
他们把它叫做螺丝
我咽下这工业的废水，失业的订单
那些低于机台的青春早早夭亡
我咽下奔波，咽下流离失所
咽下人行天桥，咽下长满水锈的生活
我再咽不下了
所有我曾经咽下的现在都从喉咙汹涌而出
在祖国的领土上铺成一首
耻辱的诗

2013.12.19