Clade Song 5

gongxifacai: An Idiomatic Chinese Calendar

Rats abandon a sinking ship
Cows have no business in horseplay
Tigers die and leave their skins
If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one

Noble dragons don’t’ have friends
Snakes follow the way of serpents
A horse may stumble though he has four legs
A goat owned by two people sleeps outside

The higher a monkey climbs, the more he shows his behind
Rooster today, feather duster tomorrow
Dogs that bark much don’t bit
A pig’s tail will never make a good arrow

Changming Yuan, 8-time Pushcart nominee and author of 5 chapbooks (including Kingship [2015]), is the world's most widely published poetry creator who speaks Mandarin but writes English. Growing up in a remote Chinese village, Yuan began to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at 19 and published several monographs on translation before moving to Canada as an international student. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan currently co-edits Poetry Pacific and runs PP Press with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Since mid-2005, Changming has had poetry appearing in 1029 literary publications across 35 countries, including Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline, Cincinnati Review and Threepenny Review.