In the words of the poem his father had taught him, a son’s return for his mother’s love is always inadequate, and so is one’s responsibility to the country:
Who says that the splendor of a grass blade returns
The love of the spring that forever returns?
The End
About the Author
Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai. He was selected for membership in the Chinese Writers’ Association and published poetry, translations and criticism in China. He has lived in the United States since 1989 and has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature awarded by Washington University. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Present Tense, River Styx, Riverfront Times, and in several anthologies. He has been the recipient of the Missouri Biennial Award, the Prairie Schooner Readers’ Choice Award, a Yaddo and a Ford Foundation Fellowship. He teaches Chinese Literature at University College of Washington University and lives in St. Louis with his wife and daughter.