POETIC DELIGHTS BY JIN SHALEI-CZECH REPUBLIC

 

1-Your Virtual Footsteps

I see your

hidden footsteps

fingerprints

behind

your offline icon

The remote closeness

a virtual hug

through the shining brightness

of the screen

almost gets me

into migraine dizziness

Beyond the screen's

cold warmness

desperate to

reach you there

2025/06

2-Stories on Your Hand

Let me hold your hand

in cyberspace

I’ll write some stories on it

with a brush

sink the words

in the ink

soak them up in your skin

in an embrace of

voices

whispering offline

2025/06

3-Late Summer in February

Earlier today

I passed through

your neighbourhood

a temporary one

back then

you stayed right there

your memories

had just been ran across

by a tram

downhillwards

did you feel any pain?

AUTHOR:

JIN SHALEI-CZECH REPUBLIC

Jin Shalei 金莎磊 (1980 –) comes from the Czech Republic. She is a faculty member in the

Department of Sinology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. She

has taught courses on Chinese poetry since the 1980s, including Chinese poetry from the

1920s to the 1940s, 20th-century Chinese womens poetry, and selected topics in 20th-

century Chinese poetry and poetry criticism. Her main research focus is poetry from

mainland China since the 1980s.

In Jin Shalei’s words:

I actually publish very little, even though I keep on writing since my teenage time. Poetry is

more a therapy for me than a part of my public identity. Even though I perceive my poetry

more as a private matter, I am happy for this opportunity to share a bit of my locked-in-the-

drawer pieces. I mainly write in Czech, but I also write in (my)English.