{"id":4704,"date":"2015-02-14T20:09:04","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T01:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=4704"},"modified":"2015-02-16T15:37:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T20:37:29","slug":"no-19-liu-xiaobo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/no-19-liu-xiaobo","title":{"rendered":"No. 19 Liu Xiaobo: Listening to \u00a0Bald Lao Playing Flute"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>&#8211; To Lao Liao<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It was never a suitable place for playing flute<br \/>\nBut you miraculously<br \/>\nTurned\u00a0your flesh into the sound of flute<br \/>\nThe little restaurant was very simple<br \/>\nBut offered extremely delicious grilled steak<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Friends were casually chatting<br \/>\nAnd strangers were talking about Falun Gong<br \/>\nAs you presented Yawei your collection of poetry-in-prison<br \/>\nThis self-proclaimed happy bookseller became speechless<br \/>\nBut his hands were somehow trembling<br \/>\nThe suddenly nostalgia aroused the sound of flute<\/p>\n<p>Your eyes were tightly shut<br \/>\nNixing anything visible<br \/>\nYou jittering eyelids and eyelashes<br \/>\nManifested that life is so fragile<br \/>\nYour lips was not smooth<br \/>\nThe rough tones got air solidified<\/p>\n<p>The whole audience became \u00a0solemn in the sound of flute<br \/>\nAnd assumed their elegant poses to enjoy music<br \/>\nClosing eyes, holding breathes, and seeming to have realized something<br \/>\nBut only me opening my eyes widely and staring at you<br \/>\nFor nothing but emptiness<\/p>\n<p>I had thought a musical Instrument must be<br \/>\nElegantly stroked\u00a0by the gentle fingers<br \/>\nBut your opened fingers held tightly<br \/>\nA red-hot iron bar<br \/>\nThe hideousness of your muscles and protrusion of your bone-joints<br \/>\nSuch a kind of your intense strength<br \/>\nMade me worried about you<br \/>\nFor so delicate an instrument<br \/>\nHow to withstand it without crushing<\/p>\n<p>It was\u00a0 the bare hands grabbing the bleeding blade<br \/>\nStrangling a gambler&#8217;s throat<br \/>\nNipping into a lover&#8217;s skin<br \/>\nAnd the passion looking into the death<br \/>\nYour big bald that had been shiny<br \/>\nBecame dim in this sound of flute<br \/>\nAs being at the night when you saw the condemned off<\/p>\n<p>Ah,\u00a0 Lao Liao, Lao Liao, Lao Liao<br \/>\nThe others heard you playing soul<br \/>\nWith a sad and keen heart<br \/>\nBut\u00a0I, like an animal, in the sound of flute<br \/>\nListened to the struggle of your flesh<br \/>\nIt was a flesh that had never given in<br \/>\nYes, it was the flesh<br \/>\nI am sure<br \/>\nIt was the flesh<br \/>\nThat had \u00a0confronted the shackles and electric batons<br \/>\nDating with bedbugs, louses and death<br \/>\nIn prison<\/p>\n<p><em>At home in Beijing on November 16, 1999<\/em><\/p>\n<p>PS: When I was finishing this poem, Lao Liao was again playing his damn flute for me, really with a kinda fucking sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>(Translated by Yu Zhang)<\/p>\n<p>\uff08<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/blog\/archives\/20616\" target=\"_blank\">Chinese Original<\/a><\/span>\uff09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; To Lao Liao It was never a suita &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/no-19-liu-xiaobo\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,145],"tags":[40,1341],"views":7238,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4710,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions\/4710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}