Lo Mei Wa is a Hong Kong writer whose work has been published in Guernica Daily, Cha, and the anthology Quixotica: Poems East of La Mancha. The poem below, translated from Chinese to English by Henry Wei Leung, has been selected from Lo’s first collection Pei Pei the Monkey King.

猴王彼彼哭了

猴王彼彼哭了
那天 我長大了

那背影 一定是彼彼
牠擉坐在山坡上一角
對著山下的城市咆哮
我不敢走近

波波，原子筆，珊珊
難道他們從沒再上山嗎？
他們不就在山下的深水埗
黃大仙，又一城成家立室嗎？

那背影 一定是彼彼
牠擉坐在山坡上一角
對著山下的城市哀鳴
我低著頭 在牠身後繞過

彼彼 我回來見過你了
見你雙腿不見了
坐在天梯前發呆
我便下山去

猴王彼彼哭了
那天 我長大了
變了小孩

Pei Pei Wept

Pei Pei the Monkey King wept
That day, I came of age

I saw from behind It must have been him
He sat alone on the bluff of a slope
Thundering to the city under the slope
I dared not approach

Ballpoint, Shan Shan, Bo Bo,
Could it be they’ve never made it back up?
Aren’t they just below, in Sham Shui Po,
Wong Tai Sin, Festival Walk, building their homes?

I saw from behind It must have been him
He sat alone on the bluff of a slope
Wailing to the city under the slope
I lowered my head, made my way around

Pei Pei, I have returned to see you
I saw you with your disappeared legs
Sitting at the stairway to heaven in a daze
And I descended

Pei Pei the Monkey King wept
That day, I came of age
And became a child