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

Bei Dao (simplified Chinese: 北岛; traditional Chinese: 北島; pinyin: Běidǎo; literally: "Northern Island", August 2, 1949 - ) is the pen name of Chinese poet Zhao Zhenkai (S: 赵振开, T: 趙振開, P: Zhào Zhènkāi). Bei Dao is the most notable representative of the Misty Poets, a group of Chinese poets who reacted against the restrictions of the Cultural Revolution.

Quotes

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

The August Sleepwalker, trans. Bonnie S. McDougall (New York: New Directions, 1990), ISBN 978-0811211314
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.
Freedom is nothing but the distance
between the hunter and the hunted.

  • 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.
  • I am no hero
    In an age without heroes
    I just want to be a man
    • "Declaration", p. 62
  • I will not kneel on the ground
    Allowing the executioners to look tall
    The better to obstruct the wind of freedom
    • "Declaration", p. 62
  • Freedom is nothing but the distance
    between the hunter and the hunted
    • "Accomplices", p. 89
  • we are not guiltless
    long ago we became accomplices
    of the history in the mirror
    • "Accomplices", p. 89
  • a perpetual stranger
    am I to the world
    I don't understand its language
    my silence it can't comprehend
    • "A perpetual stranger...", p. 110
    • Variant translation:
      • In the world I am
        Always a stranger
        I do not understand its language
        It does not understand my silence
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