Contents
Cover
About the Book
About the Author
Dedication
Title Page
Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Author’s Introduction: From the Tremors of a Tomb
JUNE FOURTH ELEGIES
Experiencing Death
For 17
Suffocating City Square
A Lone Cigarette Burns
From the Shattered Pieces of a Stone It Begins
Memory
I Will Give My Soul Free Rein
That Day
Closing in and Breaking Through
Standing in the Curse of Time
For Su Bingxian
Memories of a Wooden Plank
June Fourth, a Tomb
Beneath the Gaze of the Departed Souls
Fifteen Years of Darkness
Remember the Departed Souls
The White Lilies in the Dark Night of June Fourth
The Dead Souls of Spring
Child – Mother – Spring
June Fourth in My Body
FIVE POEMS FOR LIU XIA
Daybreak
A Small Rat in Prison
Greed’s Prisoner
Longing to Escape
One Letter Is Enough
Translator’s Afterword
Notes
Copyright
About the Book
Liu Xiaobo (born 1955) is a pre-eminent Chinese literary critic, professor and humanitarian activist. Since his hunger strike in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 he has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government, helping to write the Charter 08 manifesto calling for free speech, democratic elections and basic human rights. He was arrested and convicted on charges of ‘incitement to subversion’, and sentenced to eleven years in prison. The following year, 2010, during this fourth prison term, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘his prolonged non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China’. Neither he nor his wife was allowed to travel to Oslo, and the Chinese government blocked all news stories of the prize and intimidated Liu’s friends and family. He is the only Nobel Laureate in detention.
June Fourth Elegies is a collection of the poems Liu Xiaobo has written each year on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. An extraordinarily moving testimony and an historical document of singular importance, it is dedicated to ‘the Tiananmen Mothers and for those who can remember’. In this bilingual volume, Liu’s poetry is for the first time published freely in both English translation and in the Chinese original.
About the Author
Liu Xiaobo is a political activist, author, university professor and writer. He was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
Jeffrey Yang is the author of two poetry collections and an editor at New Directions Publishing.
This book is dedicated to the Tiananmen Mothers and for those who can remember
Foreword
As a firm believer in non-violence, freedom, and democratic values, I have supported the non-violent democracy movement in China from its beginning. One of the most encouraging and moving events in recent Chinese history was the democracy movement of 1989, when Chinese brothers and sisters demonstrated openly and peacefully their yearning for freedom, democracy, and human dignity. They embraced non-violence in a most impressive way, clearly reflecting the values their movement sought to assert.
The Chinese leadership’s response to the peaceful demonstrations of 1989 was both inappropriate and unfortunate. Brute force, no matter how powerful, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom, whether it is expressed by Chinese democrats and farmers or the people of Tibet.
In 2008, I was personally moved as well as encouraged when hundreds of Chinese intellectuals and concerned citizens inspired by Liu Xiaobo signed Charter 08, calling for democracy and freedom in China. I expressed my admiration for their courage and their goals in a public statement, two days after it was released. The international community also recognised Liu Xiaobo’s valuable contribution in urging China to take steps toward political, legal, and constitutional reforms by supporting the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to him in 2010.
It is ironic that today, while the Chinese government is very concerned to be seen as a leading world power, many Chinese people from all walks of life continue to be deprived of their basic rights. In this collection of poems entitled June Fourth Elegies, Liu Xiaobo pays a moving tribute to the sacrifices made during the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Considering the writer himself remains imprisoned, this book serves as a powerful reminder of his courage and determination and his great-hearted concern for the welfare of his fellow countrymen and women.
HIS HOLINESS THE FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA, TENZIN GYATSO
3 September, 2011
Author’s Introduction
From the Tremors of a Tomb