‘Your Lifelong Prisoner’ – Liu Xiaobo’s Poem from Prison

A book of poems published in 2012 by Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident released from prison on Monday, contained a moving tribute to his wife, the poet Liu Xia. To Xia My dear, I’ll never give up the struggle for freedom from the oppressors’ jail, but I’ll be your willing prisoner for life.

I’m your lifelong prisoner, my love I want to live in your dark insides surviving on the dregs in your blood

inspired by the flow of your estrogen I hear your constant heartbeat drop by drop, like melted snow from a mountain stream if I were a stubborn, million-year rock you’d bore right through me drop by drop day and night

Inside you I grope in the dark and use the wine you’ve drunk to write poems looking for you I plead like a deaf man begging for sound Let the dance of love intoxicate your body I always feel your lungs rise and fall when you smoke in an amazing rhythm you exhale my toxins I inhale fresh air to nourish my soul I’m your lifelong prisoner, my love like a baby loath to be born clinging to your warm uterus you provide all my oxygen all my serenity

A baby prisoner in the depths of your being unafraid of alcohol and nicotine the poisons of your loneliness I need your poisons need them too much

Maybe as your prisoner I’ll never see the light of day but I believe darkness is my destiny inside you all is well

The glitter of the outside world scares me exhausts me I focus on your darkness – simple and impenetrable