"The sky is grey The road is grey The building is grey The rain is grey Through this stretch of dead ash Walked two children One in bright red One in light green."

"Do you see it? Do you see that sunflower, raising its head Glaring at the sun? Its head almost eclipses the sun Yet even when there is no sun Its head still glows."

"Clouds that are grey Can no longer be washed clean. We open the umbrella And simply paint the sky black."

"It is probably safe to say that Gu Cheng was the most radical poet in all of China's 2,500 years of written poetry."

"A bird in the gusty wind Deftly changes directionA youth tries to pick up A pennyThe grapevine in fantasy Stretches its tentaclesThe Wave in retreat Arches its back."

"They are reduced to wrongdoers of the mind Merely because: They misused parables. (...) They are people who have missed life, stuck in a place where life is misunderstood Everything they have gone through —— is a mere tragedy of birth"

"Looking out from death you will always see Those whom all your life you ought not to see"

"If I love you— I never behave like a climbing trumpet vine Using your high branches to show myself off; If I love you— I never mimic infatuated little birds Repeating monotonous songs into the shadows, Nor do I look at all like a wellspring Sending out its cooling consolation all year round, Or just another perilous crag Augmenting your height, setting off your prestige. Nor like the sunlight Or even spring rain. No, these are not enough. I would be a kapok tree by your side Standing with you— both of us shaped like trees. Our roots hold hands underground, Our leaves touch in the clouds. As a gust of wind passes by We salute each other And not a soul Understands our language. You have your bronze boughs and iron trunk Like knives and swords, Also like halberds; I have my red flowers Like heavy sighs, Also like heroic torches. We share cold waves, storms and thunderbolts; Together we savor fog, haze and rainbows. We seem to always live apart, But actually depend upon each other forever. This has to be called extraordinary love. Faith resides in it: Love— I love not only your sublime body But the space you occupy, The land beneath your feet."

"Let me tell you, world, I—do—not—believe! If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet, Count me as number one thousand and one.I don't believe the sky is blue: I don't believe in thunder's echoes; I don't believe that dreams are false: I don't believe that death has no revenge."

"Remember the storm, the lighthouse That brought us together Another storm, a different light Drove us asunder again Even though morning or evening Sky and ocean stand between us You are always on my voyage I am always in your sight"

"Instead of being on display on the cliff for a thousand years I'd rather have a hearty cry on my lover's shoulder for a single night."

"Her voice is distinctly feminine, but not feminist. In the decade after the Cultural Revolution, when China was struggling to recover from ten years of trauma, Shu Ting's gentle poetic voice and her faith in the human spirit drew a remarkably large following."

"A colorful hanging chart with no lines. A pure algebra problem with no solution."

"I am no hero In an age without heroes I just want to be a man"

"I will not kneel on the ground Allowing the executioners to look tall The better to obstruct the wind of freedom"

"Freedom is nothing but the distance between the hunter and the hunted"

"we are not guiltless long ago we became accomplices of the history in the mirror"

"a perpetual stranger am I to the world I don't understand its language my silence it can't comprehend"

"On a night full of symbols The moon is like an invalid's pallid face Like a mistaken shifted time And death, like a doctor standing before the bed"