flâneur

The Yale Review | Chen Poyu, translated by Nicholas Wong: “Drone”

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HOW DID THIS POEM BEGIN FOR YOU? Sometimes it’s not easy to explain where the idea for a poem comes from, but I remember how certain parts of the poem come together like a machine. For example, the drone is from Hsu Chia-Wei’s video installation Drones, Frosted Bats and the Testimony of the Deceased, and the bitcoin is from Liu Chuang’s artwork. I was reading Memoirs of Hadrian at the time of writing the poem, which explains why the Roman emperor naturally appears in it. Separated from the original work of art, any object is just an object. I think it’s like being in an empty room where one tries to arrange the placement of objects until, at some point, an idea comes to him. Annie Ernaux's unpublished journals, Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison's native figures, Lauren Oyler on her AI boyfriend, and more.

A small boat by the riverbank, so reachable yet with separation anxiety, buoy balls twisting their shoulder blades. Drinking alone, or with others (while trading poems), a young Roman emperor sailed past, overseeing his own mausoleum-in-progress. He divulged, excused himself (the development project had stalled again). Sediment, reeds, and crossings. Young talents should know and embrace each other. And the guards on duty at the power plant watched the emperor and ministers watching each other pass in silence on the ship. Bitcoin and computer hackers from afar were bewitched by…

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