Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Thursday, February 5, 2026

The Question Not Asked Yet

for Albert Camus

charred remains 
of a woman and baby
the sky, tinged with red

Is it barbaric to write poetry during the genocide? But what else remains? A gray-haired poet mutters to himself in the flickering candlelight. 

He turns his gaze away from a piece of wrinkled paper, then stares out his cracked window at smoky ruins after smoky ruins ...