First Love

by Xue Di

First Love
     translated by Wang Ping and Keith Waldrop

Calling ceaselessly your name
in order to feel how I was caught and
plunged into birth
I cried, meaning to refuse the un-
welcoming world
Pain contains me
frightened and confused
calling your name
Nightmare clutches me
My heart is torn by hungry
wolves within my flesh

First love, like a mirror
broken.  Pain
of my birth, life’s
pain.  Love leads me by the nose
I’m in a hard grip
pulled along.  Wolves
prowl in all directions