The Open Door
--- For Madame Hualing Nieh
You stepped out of the crowd
Took us to your house on the bank of the Iowa River
A big house, a bright Liu Guosong moon
Casting light on a Huang Yongyu lotus
Ya Xian’s red corn, and Mo Yan’s red sorghum
Hanging suspended from the eaves
You opened the door again and again, and tore down a wall
The road running like horses, from here to the horizon
Around that dinner table
Words in many tongues converged
Drafting a map of the world
Sitting at the dining table
I took a cup of high mountain tea, and crossed
The Taiwan Strait. We live in the same language
We were early on made allies
----by the same writing
Your life, what an abundant gift
From a seed grow three lifetimes
And a reference book for love blossoms
Its front a bird opening the sky
Its back a river flowing through this land
Translated by Mary Bradley
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