My Aspiration
Huang Kai De

Since young
I had known
The secret behind
My melancholy.

One day, our teacher
Made us write an essay
About our aspirations
I picked up my pen, thought for a while,
And peered at the neighboring boy whose gaze
Was fixed with anticipation on faraway Mars.

And so, with floating frivolity,
I wished only for
My Adam’s apple to grow
So I may, with a hardened courage,
Love, so carefully,
Another whose apple would soon grow
As well.

I was not honest
I did not write in neat characters
My inner wayward thoughts

Nonetheless, as expected, I aged into
The huskiness of maturity

What happened after has of course
Been forgotten by all
To finally land on Mars is less tragic, less grand
Than to live out a human life on Earth
But whenever I look up
At my childhood sky
That still is
My aspiration

Translated by Hao Yang

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