John Zheng

Tongues

One autumn evening while pacing pensively along Grand Boulevard with my head lowered, I was greeted by a jogger whose hi sounded cheerful like a cardinal’s chirp. I looked up blurting out wei. The person cast a smile as if understanding the word. I shook my head as if to clear the brain fog, wondering how wei responded to hi. For three decades, Mandarin has drained from the mind like the lost water on Mars. Without a chance to use the language daily, how did wei dart like a woodpecker out of its tree hole? An instinct, an eagerness to be used, or a sound like a yoyo to delight the mind?

train to Shanghai
translate the conductor's words
for a foreigner

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About the Author

John Zheng has authored Enforced Rustication in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and published haibun and tanka prose in cho, Haibun Today, Southern Quarterly, and Spillway. His latest book is A Way of Looking, a collection of haibun and tanka prose.

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