Hu Jia’s birthday is coming up on July 25th. Last year, Hu’s wife Zeng Jinyan tried to write him a letter for his birthday but got frustrated with the prison’s requirement of closely examining the content of all their letters. Instead of a letter, she wrote a poem. Hong Kong based folk band, Mininoise turned the poem into a song. Check it out:

And here is the poem in Chinese with the English translation slightly modified from the version distributed by Amnesty International:

如果你想我，請給風兒捎信;
如果你念我，請讓流水帶來;
請把你的秘密，藏在千年的樹洞裏;
請把你的惦記，折成紙飛機;
我一一收起。
螞蟻搬運大地，
縮短相見的距離。

If you think of me, please ask the wind to bring me a letter;
If you miss me, ask the flowing water bring me your feeling;
Please hide your secret inside the hole at the thousand year old tree;
Please fold your memory into paper airplanes;
I shall collect all of them one by one.
Ants move the earth,
To shorten the distance between the last and next time we meet.