An Qi

Selected Poems

Parting Before Daybreak

• by An Qi


• First the day,
• then daybreak,
• and finally the time for parting.
• Local time in Beijing is 7 o’clock according to the TV.


• As a child, I liked to lie in bed
• and wait for daybreak,
• my silver broach stayed in its soft dormant curve.
• I counted my fingers,
• exactly ten.


• Almost daybreak,
• but no light in the sky.
• At daybreak you come. Daylight is gone when you go.
• Days with light, days without light, days come, days go.
• You come, you go, coming and going, walking to me, and away from me.


• Now a grown-up, I still daydream,
• waiting for daybreak like waiting for an archaeologist
• to excavate, patting me with a spade
• and expose me to daylight.
• Oh, oh, just as I feel the thrill, I see your hand leaving.