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

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

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

Reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press from No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems by Xiaobo Liu. Copyright © 2012 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.