by Ng Mei Kwan, translated from the Chinese by the author

HEARTBEAT OF THE SQUARE

When the Square’s heart beats
There seems to be a child in a mother’s embrace
Open her arms
With a liberal mind
When she weeps
There is no light
The night was eradicated by the dark
Her roaring tears
Folded up our tiredness
A fake smile
A theft hid in a black box
A plane was stopped breathing  midflight
Its explosion banned to silence
lowers of innocent umbrellas
Waiting for a miracle
A blooming countenance
How come they grasped
transparent violence and shields
To confront
People without bullets
The surrounded Square gets old
It is unable to accommodate
Its independent child.

廣場的心跳

如果廣場有心跳
如張開雙手攤展胸懷
屬於孩子的母親
擁抱著孩子
她哭的時候
廣場上沒有燈
黑暗鏟除了夜
咆哮的淚水
摺起疲累
虛偽的微笑
黑盒內偷竊
飛機在半空中停止了呼吸
連爆炸也噤聲了
天真的一朵朵雨傘
像等待奇蹟的花顏
竟有人用假透明的暴烈
對峙的盾
擋沒有子彈的公民
廣場的圍板瞬間衰老
再沒有資格和能力
認領已自立的主人

After Ng Mei Kwan obtained a PhD in Chinese literature from The University of Sydney, she has taught in the University of Kong Kong, Lingnan University, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, among other places. Her first poetry collection won the Outstanding Entry in the First Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature. She is the founding director of International Association of Theatre Critics (HK), founding chairlady of HK Literary Criticism Society, chairlady of Literature group & ASC, as well as a board member of Hong Kong Arts Development Council (2014-2016) and writer-in-residence at the Education University in 2018. She published the BubbleTea Magazine recently to promote literary reading to youth and the public. Her major publications are The fourth Morning [poetry collection], We Are So Close [poetry collection], Silence of Time [poetry collection], and The Lone Eye at Theatre, Image & Literature Across the Century [Collection of Criticism]. Her translated verses are first collected in The Bluest Part of the Harbour: Poems from Hong Kong published by Oxford University Press.