My poem, “Thoughts” was published in the Autumn Issue of Poetry Lab Shanghai along with the Chinese translation. Go here to read it in the journal, along with the other poems, or check it out below.

Autumn ’22 Issue | 2022 秋季刊

Thoughts

by Shirani Rajapakse

We have lost our way

hurrying

towards the future with no

consideration for the present

the past the glories we shared.

There is healing in knowledge

but no one wants

to acknowledge

debts to the past

the people

the ancestors all those

who came before.

We’ve done nothing but

take take take

without a thought to the damage to our selves,

our bodies.

Our beliefs turned

upside down.

Our lives torn out trees

wrenched out roots and all and we

perish like stale milk turning sour

curdling changing ugly yellow

then gone

forever.

Shirani Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan poet and short story writer. Her publications include the award-winning Chant of a Million Women and I Exist. Therefore I Am. Rajapakse’s work also appears in Buddhist Poetry, Silver Birch, Cyclamens & Swords, Asian Signature, New Verse News and more.

思绪

翻译：诗验室

我们已迷失方向

急促走

向未来而不

考虑现在

过去我们共同的辉煌。

知识可以治愈

但是无人愿意

承认

过去的债

人们

祖先所有的

过来人。

我们除了索取索取索取

别无作为

根本没有考虑到给自己和身体

所造成的伤害。

我们的信仰

乱七八糟。

我们的生活面目全非树

被强行拔起连根带土然后我们

消失无踪一如困住的牛奶变酸

凝结蜕变又丑又黄

然后从此

一去不复返。

Shirani Rajapakse 是一位斯里兰卡诗人与短篇小说家。她出版过的书籍有获过奖的《百万女人的呐喊》与《我存。故我在。》她的一些作品还曾出现于《Buddhist Poetry》、《Silver Birch》、《Cyclamens & Swords》、《Asian Signature》、《New Verse News》等处。