These are unusual times. These poets are tale-tellers of their world.                  (All rights reserved.)




POEMS

Filling in the Blanks

  • by Chen Guiliang

  • The sky, you see, is blank, so blank,
  • such a vast blank,
  • I wonder what it takes to fill it.
  • It reminds me of Death
  • and the way it is registered on a clan's genealogy;
  • each entry requires a person to give up his life.
  • On a spring afternoon,
  • my father suddenly passed away,
  • filling a generation’s blank space.
  • I know more kinsmen
  • will fill up the remaining blanks.
  • It won’t take long
  • before I replace these people
  • to become a husband, a father,
  • giving my love unconditionally,
  • and know there will be another
  • who will do as I do ––
  • fill in, fill in.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

填空

  • 文 / 陈贵亮

  • 你看,天空多空,这么大的空
  • 要什么才能填满
  • 如同死亡,在族谱上
  • 需要一个人舍身
  • 某个春日午后,我的父亲突然死去
  • 填补了一代人的空白
  • 我知道,还会有更多的亲人
  • 将填满那些余下的空白
  • 用不了多久。我也会代替他
  • 成为别人的丈夫,父亲
  • 把全部的爱给予他们
  • 然后慢慢等待
  • 另一个人,像我一样
  • 填填补补

Blushing Red, The Lacquer Tree

  • by Chen Min

  • Blushing Red, maiden in red...
  • More than corn brandy, more than their wives’ names,
  • she inflames the lacquer-tree men, eyes staring wide.
  • What a propitious time to be a bride.
  • In the autumn wind, as the horns blow and blow,
  • slowly and shyly, along the precipice she goes.
  • Walking up to the bluff, high above the field,
  • no thoughts of stopping;
  • watching months and years fly by,
  • no thoughts of stopping.
  • Lovely and sweet, arousing the deepest desires.
  • Brilliant and colorful, what beautiful attire!
  • Oh, which lacquer-tree cutter would not want you?
  • Until the young men call, the elders urge them on,
  • nursing mothers with sweet warm bosoms join in,
  • and dry-eyed foot-binding grandmothers chime in:
  • Blushing Red, maiden in red,
  • around the bend and over the hills.
  • Oh, Blushing Red. Yo!
  • These long rows of buttons don’t hold back a man’s lust,
  • the pickle-munching, potato-eating thinkers and revolutionaries
  • rant about the affairs of Blushing Red, half gasping and panting,
  • staring with eyeballs as wide as saucers, as spirited as wine cups,
  • gazing at a hill of Blushing Red, prettier than New Year’s Day, longer-lasting than the hills.
  • Blushing Red, maiden in red,
  • coloring heaven and all under it.
  • Oh, Blushing Red. Yo!
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

女儿红

  • 文 / 陈敏

  • 女儿红,女儿红......
  • 比包谷酒比老婆红火的名字,
  • 燃烧得割漆的汉子们眼睛发直。
  • 是该红火的时候,便做次新娘子。
  • 在秋风唢呐的护送下,
  • 羞羞答答姗姗走过徒崖。
  • 徒崖坎子挡不住,
  • 纷飞的岁月挡不住。
  • 漂亮得红艳欲滴,
  • 流光溢彩得出奇。
  • (哪个割漆的汉子不想你哟)
  • 直到少男们吆喝,老头们吆喝,
  • 敞开怀奶孩子香喷喷热烘烘的少妇 和
  • 眨巴着眼皮小脚婆婆一齐吆喝:
  • 女儿红,女儿红,
  • ——啊,那漫山遍野的女儿红!
  • 这些一长排布扣子拦不住欲望的汉子们,
  • 酸咸菜红薯糊糊的思想者和叛逆者们,
  • 一边嘟囔着女儿红的风流韵事,
  • 一边喘着气把眼睛瞪得比酒盅大比酒盅有神,
  • 眺望着
  • 这个比阴历年醇美比山坡久长的时辰。
  • ——女儿红,女儿红,
  • 那漫天遍野的女儿红哟!

Holiday Hotel in Zhaotong Alley

  • by Chen Yanqiang

  • I am not talking about the famous Wide-Narrow Alleys in Chengdu,
  • but the Holiday Hotel in Zhaotong;
  • it was within an easy short walk to the bus terminal
  • — a practical choice for me —
  • and spending 80 Yuan for the night would be fine.
  • Perhaps I once treated the hotel owner’s son to a late night meal,
  • so tonight he offered me a hot pot dinner on the house.
  • I quickly turned down all other parties
  • and looked forward to a hearty drink.
  • Sitting across from me was a beautiful woman,
  • who said something in Mandarin with every shot she drank.
  • Two of the men at the table passed out quickly,
  • so I called on a backup drinker.
  • But she was as steady as a bottle on the table
  • until around midnight
  • when the shop owner's son helped her
  • to her rented room.
  • I thought the young man would be gone for the night,
  • but he returned before I finished a cigarette,
  • much to my hidden delight.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3

昭通宽窄巷子假日酒店

  • 陈衍强

  • 不是成都的宽窄巷子
  • 是昭通的假日酒店
  • 由于步行几分钟就到客运站
  • 我图坐班车方便
  • 就花80元入住
  • 也许我曾经
  • 请店老板的儿子吃过夜宵
  • 他当晚在店里用火锅款待我
  • 我卸载掉别的应酬
  • 时刻准备喝醉
  • 坐我对面的一个美女
  • 一直用普通话下酒
  • 她的酒量很快就删除了我旁边的两个男人
  • 为了备份
  • 我赶紧叫来一个酒徒
  • 与她对饮
  • 她依然像岿然不动的酒瓶
  • 喝到午夜
  • 店老板的儿子
  • 才把她的酒气送回她的出租屋
  • 我以为店老板的儿子
  • 一去不复返
  • 谁知我还没抽完一支烟
  • 他已经返回
  • 我暗自高兴

A Carved Wooden Chair

  • by Chilechuan

  • Not a trace of sky, earth, or ax ...
  • they have no effect on it anymore.
  • All the faults were smoothed out and polished,
  • now it looks like a timeless flower —
  • Someone separated it out
  • from many other wooden chairs.
  • It sits alone, like the quietest heart
  • that yields to fate too often: lonely, powerless,
  • being sanded down again and again —
  • An antique, with countless old scars...
  • The carved wooden chair is no longer a chair.
  • Only time comes to rest on it,
  • and no one else dares
  • to do the same.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

雕花的木椅

  • 文 /敕勒川

  • 似乎天空、大地和斧头……已与它
  • 无关,所有的伤口
  • 都被抹平,抛光,幻化成了
  • 永恒的花朵——
  • 一把雕花的木椅,被人
  • 从众多的木椅中分离出来,安静得
  • 不能再安静,像一颗
  • 过分安于命运的心:孤独,无奈……被一粒尘埃
  • 反复敲打——
  • 太古老了,那些疼痛……一把雕花的木椅
  • 已不再是一把木椅,除了时光
  • 已没有人敢
  • 轻易
  • 落座……

Letter to a Friend

  • by Ah Xin

  • Let me tell you about these sheep. In many ways
  • they are like the ocean creatures you know so well:
  • in the benevolence of the creator, they bear children,
  • each has a face of a lad or an old man.
  • These days they are on the hills, a tight flock, a warm flock,
  • with a thin frost on, like a white mountain.
  • Above them are countless constellations:
  • the Bear in the north, the Dipper in the south, the Arabian Aquarius,
  • the Milky Way flowing like the Amazon...ancient but refreshing.
  • I set up my tent next to them.
  • My dreams are numerous, too, and each brings its own comfort.
  • Dawn, dripping with dew, floats down to the grassland at the foothill,
  • like an armada of ships sailing towards an unknown sea.
  • As for me, I will return to the city, where
  • my days and my fate await.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

致友人书

  • 文 / 甘南阿信

  • 现在可以说说这些羊。它们
  • 与你所熟悉的海洋生物具有相似性:
  • 被上帝眷顾,不断地繁殖,长着
  • 一张老人或孩子的脸。
  • 现在它们回到山坡,挤成一团,互相取暖。
  • 现在它们身上覆着一层薄薄的寒霜,和山坡一样白。
  • 现在它们上方的星空也簇拥着无数星座:
  • 北方的熊,南方的榕树,盛净水的阿拉伯水瓶,
  • 南美大河……古老又新鲜。
  • 我的帐蓬就在它们旁边,
  • 我梦见的和它们一样多。安慰也一样多。
  • 黎明抖擞着潮湿的皮毛奔向山下的草地,
  • 像满帆的船队驶往不可测的海洋。
  • 而我将重新回到城市,那里
  • 有等着我的命运和生活

The Wall

  • by Gao Pengcheng

  • I am not alluding to the body and flesh
  • of a generation,
  • but only to describe a place that looked like someone’s
  • undecorated room. That year I visited
  • a remote schoolhouse in the countryside.
  • On one flaking wall, the red slogan “Long, Long Live…!” was still visible,
  • almost like the branding iron on the skin
  • of a whole generation of people.
  • The sun was particularly soothing on that end-of-April day,
  • but the red paint had seeped through the earthen wall.
  • I couldn't tell if this wall separated
  • two existences of a man,
  • neither could I say if his heart
  • resembled this bare room with such gloomy light –-
  • a wall covered with old newspapers,
  • a certificate of merit, two discolored movie posters for Red Peonies
  • and an outdated Christian calendar.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

  • 高鹏程

  • 我不能说它是一个时代的皮肤
  • 和身体
  • 我不能说它是一个人身体的两面
  • 我要说的仅仅是一间,疑似某人寝室的
  • 陋室。在那年,在
  • 一所偏僻的乡村学校
  • 四月底的阳光正好。斑驳的墙体上,
  • 万寿无疆的红字依旧可辨
  • 像印在皮肤上的烙印
  • 字体的阴影,随着陈年的雨水渗入墙体
  • 我不能说这光线幽暗的陋室
  • 像他的内心——
  • 糊满旧报纸的墙上
  • 分别贴着一张奖状、两幅发黄的
  • 《红牡丹》电影海报以及一张过期的基督教年历

A Petite Flower in Ta'er Monastery

  • by Hu Yonggang

  • In the low ground, even lower, I see a petite flower.
  • Its head reaches out from dense grass, nudging up for sunlight,
  • and its golden tendrils dazzle under the sky.
  • It bends menially in the wind, like a pilgrim offering a prayer.
  • It has a dream unknown to all, hidden under tall grass,
  • but each time a wind blows by, the little flower sees its innermost self.
  • Walking by the petite flower, I feel curiously calm.
  • Dewdrops moisten my garment, and moisten my inner emptiness and loneliness.
  • Afar, a prayer sways his praying wheel in the snow,
  • then prostrates lower than the flower, like the wild grass on the plateau.
  • In this vermillion monastery, flowers are the most touching sight,
  • and no passage in the sutra is as lovely as the mutual dependence of two hearts.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

塔尔寺之花

  • 青海湖

  • 在低处,甚至更低,我看见一朵小小的花
  • 在草丛中昂起头来,它沉默着,接近日光。
  • 叶脉上,金色的触须与天光辉映
  • 它卑微地弯腰,在风中致意,仿佛是朝拜。
  • 它有不为人知的梦想,深草遮蔽了它
  • 佛寺之风一次次把它吹开,看见自己的心。
  • 而我经过它身边,莫名地静了下来
  • 露水沾湿了我的衣裳,我沾湿了内心的空寂。
  • 远处,一个雪下面祈祷的人摇晃着经筒
  • 他比它更低地匍匐在地上,像紧贴高原的草。
  • 在赤红的喇嘛寺中,没有比花草更美的风景了
  • 没有一道经文比心心相印的依赖更生动。

Tea

  • by Jing Qiufeng

  • Through lovely scenery come and go,
  • in the drizzle of fog and mist,
  • trailing the sound of beautiful songs,
  • here you are, a Yangtze-River girl.
  • You can’t leave the water:
  • you live, you bathe in the water
  • as if to relive
  • the lovely scenery of your home
  • in the fog and mist,
  • where music floats out at every turn.
  • Homesick,
  • you taste the river in your tea.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

  • 井秋峰

  • 从秀山秀水的地方走来
  • 从总是落着雾样的小雨里走来
  • 从一阵阵优美的歌声里走来
  • 你是江南的女子
  • 你离不开水
  • 浴在水中
  • 你就像回到秀山秀水的家乡
  • 回到总是落着小雨的家乡
  • 回到了飞出一阵阵优美的歌声
  • 的家乡
  • 你想家的时候
  • 水也有了江南的味道

The Great Yunnan Empire

  • by Lang Qibo

  • Wumeng likes to sing after a few drinks
  • and he always sings the same old song.
  • I’ve heard it many times,
  • but still can’t remember a word of it.
  • Wumeng dreams of building his own empire,
  • calling it The Great Yunnan Empire,
  • but the soberer he gets,
  • the more his empire looks like a castle of delusion,
  • not to mention the absence of a constitution
  • or an outline of guiding principles.
  • The drunken Wumeng
  • is our dear sweet bro,
  • he invites us to his dream, in a world without dreams.
  • Together we are happy to call a stag a horse.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 13

大滇

  • 文 /郎启波

  • 酒后的乌蒙就爱唱歌
  • 他总会唱的
  • 只有惟一的那首歌曲
  • 我听了他唱了好多次
  • 却从未记住一句歌词
  • 乌蒙一直有个梦想
  • 要建一个自己的王国
  • 叫做大滇帝国
  • 越是清醒的时候
  • 帝国就越没有了踪影
  • 更找不到治国的韬略
  • 或是丁点的方针
  • 酒后的乌蒙,是个
  • 可爱至极的兄弟
  • 我们一起,在没有梦
  • 的梦里,指鹿为马

Essential Things

  • by Li Li

  • Let me count a few things that I can’t do without.
  • In the past there were letters, so envelopes and post offices were essential;
  • then, there must be doves, a cool breeze, reveries,
  • and a backdrop of dusk on the way to the post office.
  • A place to say farewell is essential when it's time to leave home;
  • a ticket in my hand, him at the windy train station,
  • tears in our eyes, and the warmth
  • running down my spine as I gently turn around.
  • Reaching middle-age, children nearby and healthy parents are essential,
  • so are the lovely words on the pages I turn,
  • and the fragrance of the fruits he brings to the room.
  • Finally, the peach flowers that bloom overnight —
  • if you catch the sweet scent of the apparitions under these trees,
  • please know they were my folks who left this world too early.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

重要的事情

  • 离 离

  • 一直以为,我这一生都是不可缺少的
  • 以前习惯写信,信封和邮局是必不可少的
  • 寄信的途中,鸽子带来清凉和梦想
  • 被它们惊动的黄昏是不可少的
  • 离家时远方的存在是必然的
  • 车票,站台和他在风里
  • 眼角一定是湿润的,我微微转过的
  • 身子是幸福的一种
  • 人到中年,儿女绕膝,父母健在是让人羡慕的
  • 我在灯下翻书,爱迷人的文字也爱
  • 他递来的果子的清香
  • 爱村里一夜间全开的桃花和
  • 花下的鬼,如果他们身怀香气
  • 就是我短命的亲人

Peaceful Avenue

  • by Li Longnian

  • I always feel that fish
  • probably swim up the avenues, to the trees.
  • I catch in the air the exhalations of shellfish
  • and the silver streaks of scabbard fish.
  • Their feelers touch the leaves
  • for them to secrete tiny green bubbles.
  • An avenue of graceful trees. I guess it has to do with sea fish.
  • The trees twist and twirl, like fish.
  • In fact, they breathe through the trees’ leafy lungs,
  • nestling up to them carefully,
  • to feel the gentle pulse and ripples in the air.
  • I am thrilled to discover this secret:
  • with regard to the word “graceful”,
  • the ocean gives us the most charming illustrations.
  • They are also encoded
  • in the pure glow in women’s eyes.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 11

静静的街树

  • 李龙年

  • 我一直以为 海鱼们
  • 可能游上了街树
  • 我嗅到空气中 贝壳的呼吸和
  • 带鱼的银白色
  • 它们须角探触 令树叶吐出
  • 隐秘的 绿色气泡
  • 街树窈窕 我估计与海鱼有关
  • 街树扭动腰肢 如鱼
  • 其实只能在空气的微微波动中
  • 用心贴紧树的肺叶
  • 才能有 细微的感觉
  • 我发现了令人惊喜的秘密:
  • 海洋 关于窈窕这个词汇
  • 背后 令人心醉的诠释
  • 它们都写在
  • 女人们眼睛 纯净的光辉里

Seductive Wind

  • by Li Shangyu

  • The telephone is ringing,
  • up blows a blackish greenish wind,
  • a seductive wind . . . for one’s lost days,
  • but soon telephone wire, computer wire, and so on and so forth,
  • all come to intrude in continuous coils; he feels his heart bound by wires.
  • Annoying wires, without end, trap him
  • in the bedroom, the parlor, the kitchen, every inch
  • an interrogation, but where is the arbitrator?
  • In China, the laws apply only to the feeble.
  • Seductive wind, tell him, life only comes once.
  • Thinking about the old Song Dynasty, when men got killed casually and knights wandered everywhere.
  • The telephone rings, up goes a greenish blackish wind.
  • Here comes Spring Girl, the seductive wind, but he can only feel the land's scorching heat.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

春女风

  • 李商雨

  • 电话铃里,吹起墨绿的风
  • 春女风……久已消失的人生
  • 但接着,电话线,电脑线,……
  • 纷至沓来,心已被线占据
  • 线的烦恼,无穷无尽, 他已陷入
  • 卧室,客厅,厨房,全都成为
  • 光阴的审判,可审判者呢?
  • 可在中国,法律只对弱者
  • 春女风,告诉他,生命只有一次
  • 宋朝,杀人轻易,侠客四方行走
  • 电话铃里,觑见墨绿的风
  • 春女如风,而他若苦夏的中国。

UNSIGHTLY SCENES

  • by Li Shangyu

  • The ancient poet Li Yishan commented on unsightly scenes,
  • and listed thirteen; here let me quote a few:
  • yowling down the garden to clear the way for ministers;
  • hanging wet pants on a rose trellis;
  • raising chickens and ducks under a flower canopy.
  • He was definitely a fan of flowers, couldn’t stop talking about them...
  • But on this cool spring night, inspired by the moon and the winds from afar,
  • who knows why I am thinking of lard, grime, and the old times.
  • Those days,
  • weren’t there always chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs under the flower trellis,
  • and, as one would expect, the lonely and unexplained outbursts of
  • drinking, crying, and women complaining?
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

煞风景

  • 李商雨

  • 李义山云煞风景,共十三事,
  • 今援引几例:
  • 花间喝道,花下晒褌,花架下养鸡鸭……
  • 他真是对花痴迷,不停歇……
  • 而这可是风月浩荡春夜呀
  • 我却想起猪油、污垢、旧时光
  • 那时,
  • 花架下不正有鸡、鸭、鹅、猪?
  • 世上总有清冷、神秘的喧闹:
  • 喝酒的声音,啼哭,女人抱怨。

SUMMER DAYS

  • by Li Shangyu

  • Trees make up the scenaries, the dainty nerves of the world.
  • Time passes, men depart, and birds fly into the mist.
  • Alone in the city, up early, I eat only pickles and porridge,
  • in awe of the lush green, the season's quiet composure.
  • Last night I recalled Essays in Idleness by Urabe Kenko,
  • which by itself called for getting drunk —
  • Do you know? A new day has arrived,
  • morning and afternoon, the omnipresence of mist and grayness.
  • When the wind loves the trees, it moves it like deep ocean.
  • When the wind loves a man, oh, he walks out in style!
  • Well? Look! See! The hanging bridge arches over men, small like ants,
  • as white rain falls helplessly into the river flowing east.
  • This is summer, once young, now worn, perfect for a walk,
  • and I’ll never again sing songs of righteous ardor
  • because I am weary, am done with a certain way of life. Isn't it so?
  • Drunk in youth, showy in prime, deep in old age.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

夏 日

  • 李商雨

  • 树木即风景,人世清朗的神经
  • 一别悠悠,飞鸟空濛
  • 城里寂寞,早上只吃咸菜稀饭
  • 我惊愕于你浓绿的不动声色
  • 昨夜又想到“徒然草”,这成了
  • 忍不住饮酒的借口——
  • 你是否知道?当新的一天来临
  • 这儿,那儿,上午茫茫,下午冥冥
  • 当树爱上风,墨风;当风
  • 爱上了人,那风里来的人——
  • 啊,看见了吗?长桥铁索,人如蝼蚁
  • 当白色的雨徒然地射入东流水
  • 这是青春过后的夏日,我学会了
  • 漫步,不再歌颂热血,这表明我已厌倦
  • 一种生命形式。不是吗?
  • 青年昏昏,中年朗朗,暮年幽幽。

Discoveries (excerpt from A Worker's Notes)

  • by Li Sheng

  • That was an extraordinary discovery:
  • it is now apparent to us
  • that it would take over 10,000 years
  • on the fastest modern vessel
  • to reach the elusive Milky Way.
  • We go, ah, 10,000 years
  • towards the first dawn and night,
  • towards the first brilliant star.
  • If the sea must dry up, let it dry up.
  • If stones must crumble, let them crumble.
  • We go, ah, 10,000 years,
  • listening to the river in heaven.
  • On the other hand, we still have dinosaur bones
  • sleeping peacefully under out feet;
  • old memories are being recovered bit by bit.
  • So, go, just go! As early as possible,
  • do not hesitate, and do not forget
  • to take along those tumultuous human emotions,
  • and the truncated lines of modern poetry.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 13

发现, 选自劳动者札记

  • 李盛

  • 这是一项了不起的发现
  • 现在我们已经知道
  • 头顶上那条时隐时现的银河
  • 用当代最快的运载工具
  • 要走上一万年
  • 我们走啊,一万年
  • 向着这旦复旦息的第一个朝夕
  • 向着这煜煜照人的第一颗星辰
  • 海要枯,就让它枯
  • 石要烂,就让它烂
  • 我们走啊,一万年
  • 聆听头顶上的河流天堂的水声
  • 还有脚底下一付安卧的恐龙骸骨
  • 渐渐恢复起的记忆
  • 就这样走!趁早不要迟疑
  • 更不要忘记
  • 带上我们曾经折迭的情感
  • 和分行折迭的现代诗

Stingy Winter

  • by Li Tong

  • I don’t know who handles Big Snow this season,
  • but it shrinks, and turns into Lesser Snow,
  • so little that it's now merely a decoration.
  • All of the accumulated snow, if piled up,
  • would not exceed what’s on the treetops.
  • Stingy winter, it is “as if a poor man holds a fistful of sand”.
  • Just today,
  • I kissed a few snowflakes,
  • and slowed my footsteps for them.
  • Still, in a few minutes, they were all gone.
  • Memories of the magnificent north keep coming back,
  • and I long to return — when the severe winter is over —
  • to join the horses racing across the field.
  • I would also look outside the window and see the crevices between twigs
  • holding a bundle of warmth and moisture,
  • blurry and clean.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

吝啬的冬天

  • 李桐

  • 不知是谁,把大雪这个节气
  • 缩成小雪那么小
  • 它成为一种地道的摆设
  • 全部的雪加起来
  • 也不比,树梢上堆积的多多少
  • 吝啬的冬天,“仿佛攥在穷人手里的一把沙子”
  • 就像今天
  • 我把几片雪花亲吻过了
  • 把脚步放慢。它还是几分钟就去了
  • 我会一次次惦记北方的盛大
  • 会与奔跑的马匹一起,在收回严冬之后
  • 重新回到北方——
  • 窗外的枝条,空出许多缝隙
  • 许多温暖和潮湿
  • 模糊又干净

For the Love of a Tree

  • by Li Wei

  • You once said you fell in love with the woods
  • for the love of a tree. How wonderful!
  • Can you perhaps still tell that tree apart from the rest?
  • Later, there is a path into the woods
  • with a log cabin on the way
  • and an outpost nearby, but no buses will come.
  • It is for sitting, for listening to the wind
  • and the soft whispers of each tree.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3

因为爱一棵树

  • 李威

  • 你说,因为爱一棵树
  • 而爱上一片林子,多好啊
  • 可是或许,你再也认不出
  • 最初的那棵树
  • 虽然后来,有了林间小路
  • 有了小路旁的木屋
  • 还在近旁,搭建了小站
  • 虽然搭建了小站,也无车可等
  • 只是为了坐着,听听风
  • 虽然风中,有每一棵树的低吟

Fatal Fantasy

  • by Li Xianzhen

  • At first she paints a man,
  • and then a woman.
  • The moment the man and the woman meet,
  • she hears a burst of burning pitter-patter sound.
  • In just a short time,
  • the canvas
  • turns into
  • ash,
  • and a slight wind blows it
  • out of sight.
  • Only at the imaginary edge,
  • the brush still holds a large drop of ink
  • like a tearful eye,
  • trying to refrain from uttering a sound.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

致命虚构

  • 兰雪

  • 她先是画了一个男人
  • 接着画了一个女人
  • 男人和女人
  • 一相遇,她就听到“劈劈啪啪”的燃烧声
  • 只一会儿
  • 只一会儿,那块画布
  • 就化为一小片儿
  • 灰烬
  • 风,轻轻一吹
  • 就不见了
  • 只有那支画笔
  • 躺在虚构的边缘上,噙着一大滴墨
  • 就象噙着一大滴泪水
  • 欲语还休……

Married Life

  • by Li Zhiyong

  • When we walk together, our trousers cling to the legs because of the wind.
  • When we do laundry together, I talk about my childhood —
  • how in the mountains I saw a pair of sparrows,
  • crows the size of a pillow, and a nameless fruit tree.
  • When we embrace, we do not wish to be seen,
  • nor expect a giant bird to come and lift any of our burdens.
  • If it indeed flew by, it wouldn't want to take us along,
  • but would rather go to some other people.
  • If it indeed flew by, we wouldn't have noticed it anyway.
  • When we enter autumn together, feeling the cold,
  • we wish to have another two people with us, so
  • the husband also has a husband, the wife has a wife
  • to do the house work together.
  • When we make a meal together, I ask:
  • how about rice tonight? She says, okay.
  • I say, what else is there to worry about? Nothing to worry, she says.
  • When we watch TV together, a few times we
  • forget to close the refrigerator door.
  • When we lie down together without talking, in bed,
  • we look at the roof and notice its gentle glow.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 11

夫妻生活

  • 李志勇

  • 我们一起走路时风把裤子吹得紧紧地贴在腿上
  • 我们一起洗衣服时,我说到童年,在山上见到了
  • 麻雀夫妻,乌鸦枕头,还有一树无名的果实
  • 我们拥抱在一起时,不希望有谁看到,也不需要
  • 高飞的大鸟来减轻什么
  • 它如果飞来,也会不屑于把我们带走,它会去找
  • 另外一些人。它如果飞来我们也看不见它
  • 我们一起进入秋天时,深深地感到冷了,感到
  • 还需要两个人来这里,作丈夫的丈夫
  • 和妻子的妻子,在我们的屋里忙碌
  • 我们一起做饭时,我说
  • 还是吃米饭吧,她说,好吧
  • 我说,还愁什么呢。没愁什么,她说
  • 我们一起看电视时几次忘了把冰箱门关上
  • 我们一起躺下时都不说话,望着屋顶,在床上
  • 散发着淡淡的光

Tree Rings

  • by Li Zhuang

  • The ripples in the tree
  • grow and spread,
  • but no one saw the perpetrator who cast the stone
  • to make the wave...
  • Under the tree, one hears cicadas’ incessant cries;
  • a dog wanders by and lifts his hind leg;
  • lovers embrace, parting four lips;
  • but the thunderclap hasn’t broken the trunk,
  • although a rumbling is heard...
  • What a tender heart it has,
  • as if made by a heavenly touch —
  • Let's lay a needle on the groove —
  • to feel, and hear
  • Time’s recording.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

年轮

  • 李庄

  • 可以看到树木的涟漪
  • 在扩大、生长
  • 但看不到谁掷出的那一粒石子
  • 荡漾……
  • 听到蝉声如雨
  • 一只狗走过来抬起一条后腿
  • 一对恋人依偎,张开四片嘴唇
  • 一道闪电尚未折断
  • 声音……

  • 多么苍翠的内心
  • 哦,上帝的手指——
  • 纤细的唱针——触摸
  • ——听
  • 岁月的唱片

Ticket Inspection

  • by Li Zhuang

  • Beethoven's music is flogging us again.
  • Let's have a strong drink to replenish our tears.
  • We also need love to shake us up.
  • Some of our friends have boarded a fire chariot
  • and left on a wandering journey,
  • but we still hold on to the tickets they left for us.
  • No one expects the departed to return
  • and give a cheerful account of the sceneries out there.
  • These are open tickets, so let's not expect
  • a ticket inspection!
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

检票

  • 李庄

  • 贝多芬又一次抽打了我们
  • 我们需要烈酒补充泪水
  • 需要爱抚战栗
  • 去者已登上火焰之车
  • 开始了无目的的漫游
  • 而车票遗忘在我们手里
  • 没有人会等到去者归来
  • 听他兴高采烈地说着景物
  • 那车票上没有日期也不需要
  • 检票!

Waiting for a Snowflake

  • by Liu Chengyu

  • Since the beginning of winter, I have been waiting for a snowflake to fall.
  • I changed my vocabulary to one befitting winter scenes as soon as autumn departed.
  • I made the distant mountains look ethereal in my paintings, and thinned out the streams.
  • I also put on a coat ahead of time
  • to signal the frostiness in the air and the piercing winds.
  • Anticipating the first snowflake, I observed the change in a single leaf
  • -- fishtail wrinkles on its tip before yellowing --
  • and I began to imagine snowflakes sailing down from the sky
  • like a northern belle, in a white gown with flowing sleeves.
  • I dreamt that she would stay in my arms long past winter
  • and leave her footsteps in this sun-drenched valley.
  • Earlier tonight I painted a plum tree teeming with blossoms.
  • The snowflake I've yearned for will know these delicate flowers
  • are lanterns I lit up for her.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

等一朵雪花落下来

  • 刘成渝

  • 整整一个冬天,我都在等一朵雪花
  • 落下来。秋天刚过,我就用冬天的词汇
  • 一笔一笔地描绘我的院落。我把阳光描成淡淡的远山
  • 像水墨的远景,渐渐隐入或消失,把溪水描成细瘦的银线
  • 我提前穿上棉衣,把秋天里刚长出的
  • 一丝凉意,放大,加入刺骨的寒风。
  • 等一朵雪花落下来,是从一片叶子开始的
  • 那时叶子的眼角刚刚牵出一丝鱼纹,还没来得及变黄
  • 我就想到了雪花,我的脑子迅速被
  • 雪白的水袖和长长的飘带占领,我想象雪花
  • 像一位北方的佳人从一首诗里飘然而出。在盛产阳光的山谷
  • 我渴望有一朵雪花,在我温暖的怀里
  • 留下冬天的印迹。
  • 今夜,我开始为这个冬天描上一树精彩的梅
  • 我等待的雪花,一定知道,那些小小的花朵
  • 是我为她点亮的灯笼。

Ode to the Orchid

  • Liu Congmei

  • Youlan, hidden orchid,
  • concealed in the woods on a tall hill,
  • ordinary people don’t see her still.
  • Youlan, secluded orchid,
  • she doesn't need to overdress,
  • surpassing the loveliest goddess.
  • Youlan, ghostly orchid,
  • her floating fragrance surrounds,
  • enchanting every heart around.
  • Youlan, tranquil orchid,
  • her beautiful song is a mysterious thing,
  • lightly plucking, gently touching my heartstrings.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

戏幽兰

  • 刘聪美

  • 幽兰幽兰,
  • 深藏密林高山,
  • 凡夫俗子没法看见。
  • 幽兰幽兰,
  • 她不用打扮
  • 胜过神女天仙。
  • 幽兰幽兰
  • 她的芳香飘向人间,
  • 一颗颗心儿被迷恋。
  • 幽兰幽兰,
  • 她美丽的歌儿妙不可言,
  • 轻轻扣动一根根敏感的心弦。

Spring Snow: A New Name for a New Landscape

  • by Liu Guanghui

  • How hopeless is a whisper compared to rumors that spread like wildfire.
  • Looking through wispy clouds, through a thin veil,
  • we see the truth of the matter, but will still wait for the southern wind
  • to come, to lure out a green shoot, to lift the world out of its gloom,
  • starting from one corner, then the dawning of a new era.
  • The wind has changed direction, the constellations continue to revolve,
  • and we can reasonably expect an overnight surprise.
  • Indeed the landscape has a new color the next morning.
  • The last snow gave the world its finest touch,
  • so the pretty things look even prettier, and the pure look even purer.
  • As if using a magic brush, the last snow signed off.
  • Beneath it, the land is the same land as before,
  • but we now call it Spring Field instead of Frosty Earth.
  • The country folks show up on the mountaintop, wearing hats with white sashes,
  • wave after wave, what an incredible sight.
  • Legends live on through hearsay, in cheerful metaphors.
  • Snowflakes add wings to spring, enabling it to paint the earth with flying colors,
  • with a light touch, with wild strokes and big splashes that astonish the mortals.
  • Throughout time, masters come from down-home places;
  • they are the heroes who give new names to new landscapes.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 13

春雪:被代指的江山

  • 刘光辉

  • 暗示是失败的,遍地的传言火一样漫延
  • 隔着一层袅如炊烟的薄纱,所有宁静的观望
  • 都心知肚明,都在等待一缕南风
  • 借一枝芽尖,撩起江山半明半暗的一角
  • 一语道破天机
  • 风向偏转,斗转星移,结局
  • 通常都是被临时改写的
  • 只在一夜之间,山河就被代指换了颜色
  • 雪花纷飞,最后一次画龙点睛
  • 让遍地优雅的更优雅,素朴的
  • 更趋向简单明了的素朴
  • 如同兴之所至的神来之笔,最后一场雪
  • 转眼被交接,山河还是那个山河
  • 只是由寒冬改姓了暖春
  • 遍地的草民,头顶一线雪白的流苏
  • 欢庆的队伍一山漫过一山
  • 层出不穷,万言难尽
  • 传奇都是被传说的,像一个意气风发的比喻
  • 这个春天被雪花插上翅膀,一路飞扬
  • 点、染、皴、擦,不拘一格的笔墨
  • 令所有宁静的观望黯然失色,从来
  • 大手笔,都隐匿民间,像领袖
  • 善于激扬文字,指点江山

The Ruin

  • by Liu Nian

  • The locks are rusty, paint peeling,
  • walls waiting to fall,
  • therefore I will rename this old prosperity RUIN.
  • A two-wheeled black chariot drives by,
  • but no one cares if a real doctor or a witch doctor is in it.
  • Therefore I will rename the silent crow on the riven post RECLUSE.
  • The foxtail blocks out the sunset and the temple
  • that no longer answers prayers;
  • therefore I will rename the three-legged stone lion with my name.
  • Nettles grow nettle leaves; morning glories grow glorious leaves,
  • stipa bears tiny white flowers, and loquat will not yield peaches.
  • The all-pervading seasons take care of everything,
  • therefore I will rename the earth MY LOVE.
  • Words become prolific over time but not enough to cover up everything;
  • there will be porcelain pieces to affirm the past.
  • Around the roots of old chestnut trees, there will always be groundhogs busy digging,
  • therefore I will rename this lifeless ruin PROSPERITY.
  • Those who write about money and palaces can do the same for haystacks.
  • From the top of a haystack, you see hometown, but the crow sees decay;
  • therefore I will rename the golden evening breeze SORROW.
  • As to the crow that is now stretching its wings and breaking silence,
  • I will rename it HOPE.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 12

废墟

  • 刘年

  • 所有的铁锁都在生锈,所有的粉刷都在剥落
  • 所有的围墙,都在等待倒塌
  • 于是,我把这片繁华,命名为废墟
  • 一辆漆黑的两轮马车刚刚过去
  • 没有人过问,里面坐着医生还是巫师
  • 于是,我把断柱上那只沉默的乌鸦,命名为孤独
  • 狗尾草已经高过了落日和庙宇
  • 所有的承诺,已经变成瓦砾
  • 于是,我把这座缺了一只腿的石狮,命名为自己
  • 荨麻只长荨麻叶,牵牛藤只长牵牛叶
  • 针茅只开细白的花,枇杷树不结一颗桃子
  • 四季如此辽阔,从容和无微不至
  • 于是,我把这片饱含泪水的大地,命名为爱人
  • 时间和茂盛的言词不足以埋葬一切
  • 一定能找到破碎的瓷器,证明历史的骨头
  • 一定有土拨鼠在挖掘老栗树的根
  • 于是,我把这个静如坟墓的废墟,命名为繁华
  • 世人形容金钱和宫殿的,也可以形容草垛
  • 站草垛上,你看到的是故乡,乌鸦,看到的则是死亡
  • 于是,我把这些金黄的晚风,命名为疼痛
  • 于是,我把那只打开翅膀打开沉默的乌鸦
  • 命名为希望

Odes to Mountains and Rivers

  • by Liu Quan

  • In every direction, all that I see is a weathered world,
  • but there is something else,
  • something invisible, captivating and calming;
  • I have enjoyed them ten thousand times
  • as death fades into irrelevance.
  • Satin luxury
  • showcases the world's exterior beauty,
  • but a spirit moves through its earthly veins,
  • connected by small forests of
  • skeletal trees.
  • I sing praises of the wind's passage,
  • the earth's verdant virtue,
  • the waning charm of the fairy fox,
  • and the tall tales
  • in our boisterous world.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

山水赋

  • 流泉

  • 看见的,都是岁月用旧了的
  • 看不见的
  • 是此生乐于沉浸的
  • 它们,令我心安,并在一万遍消受中
  • 忽略了生死
  • 外部之美
  • 为这个人间带来了锦缎
  • 而真正打通灵魂的,是形而下的血脉
  • 血脉上小树林一样生长的
  • 骨骼
  • 我赞美风过之处,这葱茏的美德
  • 和,渐渐低下去的
  • 白狐之魅
  • 以及,喧嚣中有关风尘的
  • 叙述

The Mountain Gap

  • by Liu Xuejun

  • After the quiet departure of the sheep,
  • a gale pushed through the mountain gap.
  • Before the wind, I only saw the sheep and their noble ragged clothing,
  • but the wind gives me a peek into death,
  • the lowly death and the senselessness of it.
  • As always, I revere all things beautiful, and
  • do not move my eyes away from the mountain gap,
  • where the sheep are gone without a trace.
  • Somehow I know when they return again, through the mountain gap,
  • the wind will have become tattered.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

山口

  • 刘学军

  • 我是在目送一群羊悄然离去后
  • 看到大风吹过山口的,在这之前
  • 我的眼里只有羊和羊高贵破烂的衣衫
  • 在这以后,我的眼里只有死亡
  • 卑微的死亡和说不出的缘由
  • 是的,我敬畏一切美好的事物
  • 我还看着山口,看着没有消息的羊群
  • 它们再次回来的时候,山口空着
  • 风开始破烂不堪成为影子

Wednesday Afternoon Tea

  • by Liu Yali

  • Wednesday afternoon,
  • I drank four cups of tea
  • and dozed off three times.
  • It is called Spring Blossom green tea;
  • it tastes a little bitter.
  • Wednesday afternoons, I join colleagues
  • around a round table to drink tea.
  • Tea does not detoxicate,
  • or purify the mind;
  • Spring Blossom Tea is kept in a tea-tin,
  • until it loses all human touch.
  • It is served at every single weekly meeting,
  • meetings so serious they resemble
  • newspaper text ‘set solid’.
  • Wednesday afternoons
  • are not tile-roof, paper-window afternoons.
  • They are not clear-spring, pottery-and-china afternoons.
  • I join my colleagues in a cup of strong tea.
  • We drink alone, in the meeting room,
  • and become a flock of wooden chickens.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

星期三的下午茶

  • 刘亚丽

  • 星期三的下午
  • 我喝了四杯茶
  • 打了三次吨儿
  • 一种叫“春尖”的绿茶
  • 味道有些苦涩
  • 星期三的下午
  • 我和同李围着圆桌喝茶
  • 茶不想解毒
  • 也无意清心
  • 茶盛在罐头瓶里
  • 就变得无情无意
  • 茶在每周一次的例会上
  • 严肃得像报刊上
  • 密密排列的铅字。
  • 星期三的下午
  • 不是瓦屋纸窗的下午
  • 也不是清泉陶瓷的下午
  • 我和同李人手一杯浓茶
  • 独自喝成一群
  • 会议室里的木鸡

Distance from the World

  • by Luo Ying

  • By the sea tonight, I wonder about my distance from the world.
  • To conduct a survey, my eyes follow the reflections
  • of the stars as they drift farther out to the sea,
  • but they surprise me by rushing back like a school of fish.
  • In fact I would rather see them turn into water chrysanthemums.
  • Everybody seems to be chatting, singing or perhaps reading poetry, but I can’t hear them,
  • perhaps I am only as good as blind when surrounded by darkness.
  • Fortunately cold waves begin to reach me little by little,
  • and I open my mouth for the sea breeze to pass through.
  • Suddenly I remember the deserts I crossed, the mountains I climbed,
  • and feel an urge to be embraced by the sea,
  • to be embraced the way I was embraced by my mother.
  • Empty seashells, looking like dry leaves or lackluster stars,
  • churn in the restless sea.
  • A beached fish flips up, fortunately no seagulls are nearby.
  • A line of footprints marches out to the depths of the sea,
  • for them I map out a constellation chart to aid their return.
  • Just then, I see a field of narcissus rise up in the sea, languid, with a metallic shine.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 11

与世界的距离

  • 骆英(黄怒波)

  • 夜晚 我坐在海边思考与这个世界距离的问题
  • 因此 我强迫自己观察星星映照在海面到底能漂多远
  • 在星星变成鱼群从远处蜂涌而回后我不知所措
  • 其实 我宁愿让星星变成小菊花种满海洋
  • 什么都在议论唱歌或者吟诵但我就是听不见
  • 看来 在黑暗中我真的是一个盲者
  • 幸好海浪一点一点地让我感到了凉意
  • 张开口 让海风从我的身体穿越
  • 回想起在沙漠里走在山路上爬我几乎扑进海
  • 我需要任何人像母亲把我紧紧抱在怀里
  • 空贝壳在海岸边像枯叶被海水翻来翻去
  • 它们是海的星星但却不再发光
  • 搁浅的鱼儿跳跃但此刻没有海鸥来啄食
  • 但有一行脚印一直走入了海的深处
  • 我以星星排列的方式为它做好了归途的标记
  • 之后 海面上长出了一株株银灰色的水仙花




November

  • by Meng Ye

  • She knows in November my eyes
  • will gain a little more depth.
  • She comes to see me then.
  • Every year when November comes, she grows a little restless.
  • She knows my eyes on such days
  • will have a deeper shade.
  • In November, the sky is almost empty with few birds.
  • I know on such days, eyes gains a little more depth,
  • not just mine but everyone’s...
  • ”Let me have a look at you?” She holds my face up.
  • ”Ah…”
  • It’s as if a big bird, beating its wings, dives into
  • the deep pool of my eyes…
  • “Is it a bird?”
  • I can’t really tell,
  • but feel that it reaches very deep...
  • She looks at me so quietly. She must be able to see that
  • I become a little more shriveled every year......
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

十一月

  • 梦也

  • 她知道,十一月,我的眼睛会变得
  • 深邃起来。
  • 她来看我。
  • 每年的十一月,她就会变得不安。
  • 她知道,我的双眼准会在这样的日子
  • 变得深邃。
  • 十一月,天空晴朗,飞禽稀少。
  • 我知道,在这样的日子,不仅是我,
  • 所有人的眼睛都会变得深邃起来……
  • “瞧瞧好么?”她捧住我的脸。
  • “呀——”
  • 一只大鸟抖着翅膀,向我的眼球深处
  • 沉下去……
  • “是鸟么?”
  • 我也说不清。
  • 我只感觉到:向深处去,向深处去……
  • 她静静地看着我,能看得出,
  • 我一年比一年更枯萎……

My Good Will

  • by Meng Ye

  • Handle me any way you like. I am the tamest mule.
  • Feel free to stroke me, play with me, or lead me
  • wherever you like.
  • If you wish, I could even carry your bundles,
  • but please don’t put on too heavy a load.
  • I can no longer glide and gallop the way I did.
  • Children like to have me around, going for a ride
  • as roar and laugh: Gi-Di-Up!
  • All of this is fine with me.
  • Children know many tricks, taking me for something soft and sweet,
  • perhaps soft enough to cut up like a cake.
  • Sometimes they climb on me like a tree,
  • hoisting themselves up the trunk to pick fruit.
  • They do as they please, I don’t mind.
  • No, it doesn’t cause me pain;
  • in fact, I am pleased they are the way they are.
  • My comfort comes from the fact that a part of me
  • is being cut and picked away.
  • To tell you the truth: it’s not that I can’t feel pain,
  • but because, because of my good will,
  • my heart is transformed into a sea,
  • where pain is purified...
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

善意

  • 梦也

  • 随你怎么看我。我像一头温顺的驴子,
  • 你可以摸我,嬉弄我,或牵着我到你
  • 愿去的地方。
  • 要是你愿意,我还可以驮上
  • 你需要的东西,只是不能太多。
  • 我已经不像年轻那会儿轻快地迈动蹄角。
  • 孩子们认为我好玩,总要骑骑我,
  • 并且大喊:驾!……他们笑了。
  • 随他们便。
  • 孩子们的花样总是很多,他们认为我又软又甜,
  • 可以像蛋糕那样切下来。
  • 有时,他们还把我当作一棵树,
  • 完全放心地沿着树干爬上去,随便地采摘果实。
  • ……随他们便。
  • 不要以为,这样一来,我会痛苦,
  • 其实,我乐于他们这样。
  • 我的幸福正是从类似于
  • 切和摘的方式中获得的。
  • 告诉你们,我不是真的不痛苦,
  • 而是因为,善意把我的心变成了一个大海。
  • 它使痛苦变得纯粹……

An Afternoon in Yunnan

  • by Na Ye

  • An afternoon in Yunnan,
  • no mentioning of poetry,
  • no exchange about human sufferings before we went to bed.
  • We were two women,
  • neither was a mother.
  • We talked about the starry sky, the philosophy of Kant,
  • Mother Teresa, and cardiology.
  • We mused about the atheists who became superstitious at old age,
  • and how shadows could be prettier than the objects.
  • In a way, being childless kept us whole.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

云南的黄昏

  • 娜夜

  • 云南的黄昏
  • 我们并没谈起诗歌
  • 夜晚也没交换所谓的苦难
  • 两个女人
  • 都不是母亲
  • 我们谈论星空和康德
  • 特蕾莎修女和心脏内科
  • 谈论无神论者迷信的晚年
  • 一些事物的美在于它的阴影
  • 另一个角度:没有孩子使我们得以完整

My Lost Herd (An excerpt from Love and Songs)

  • by Nie Le

  • My oxen are gone.
  • Daughter, let me tell you,
  • our herd has disappeared,
  • certainly you will ask me
  • where have they gone.
  • I don’t know the answer, my daughter.
  • I also ask myself: where are they?
  • Just like you asked me, I also asked Grandpa.
  • Grandpa said that after our tribe dispersed,
  • the cattle just wandered off.
  • In fact, everyone wishes to know
  • where they have gone, but no one knows.
  • In our colorful auspicious dreams,
  • they often appear,
  • a herd over the great land
  • like a mud slide,
  • moving and shifting, oh!
  • We live in a strange world,
  • very modern and very strange times.
  • Our lives and our customs
  • are really not that different from others’
  • except we get insolubly confused more often.
  • In our village, in the middle of the city,
  • we easily feel lost.
  • In long dark nights,
  • we think of our distant native home,
  • imagine some ancient tribe by a fire pit.
  • Somewhere far away in the sun,
  • we felt empowered as a tribe and dreaded nothing.
  • We lived and died naked.
  • Our oxen are lost,
  • but in fact it is not that important
  • where they have gone.

  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 13

我的牛群丢失了(选自组诗:爱与歌)

  • 聂勒

  • 告诉您,我的女儿
  • 我们的牛群丢失了
  • 您一定会问爸爸
  • 它们去了哪里
  • 我也不知道 我的女儿
  • 我也问自己,它们去了哪儿了
  • 如同您问我,我也问过爷爷
  • 爷爷说,部落消亡以后
  • 我们的牛群就走失了
  • 其实,它们去了哪儿
  • 所有人都想知道 所有人都不知道
  • 在我们彩色吉祥的梦里
  • 它们无数次地闪现
  • 一群群 泥石流般
  • 在大地上移动 移动啊
  • 我们生活在陌生的世纪
  • 一个崭新而陌生的时代
  • 我们的生活方式其实
  • 跟别人没有什么两样
  • 只是我们常常莫名地迷惘
  • 在乡村,在城市的中央,我们常常走失
  • 在漫长的黑夜里
  • 我们遥想着远方的故乡
  • 遥想着远古的部落 或火塘
  • 在那遥远的部落的阳光下
  • 我们无所不能无所畏惧
  • 我们赤裸裸地活着
  • 赤裸裸地死亡
  • 我们的牛群走失了
  • 其实,它们去了哪儿
  • 并不重要

The Old Donkey

  • by Niu Qingguo

  • She is old, the donkey who plowed our field year after year.
  • The first revelation came the day when she knelt on her front legs
  • and the cart was pushed uphill by Father
  • with every thread of his strength.
  • That evening, Father embraced the donkey’s skinny legs
  • like a man circling his arm around an old pal.
  • He said, “We are old, you and I.”
  • Now, the donkey seemed to know she served no purpose
  • and lost interest in water and hay.
  • The ragged coat that she had worn for a lifetime
  • showed a bald scar, the size of a hand.
  • I told Father to take her to the market,
  • but they always came back together
  • like a young couple, forced by parents to divorce,
  • leaving home at dawn but returning together timidly at dusk.
  • The other day, I stepped outside
  • and saw the donkey, chin on the fence;
  • she beckoned at me with a trembling voice, so bleak and so sad,
  • but Father said he knew what she meant to say.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

毛驴老了

  • 牛庆国

  • 帮父亲耕了多年地的毛驴 老了
  • 它的老 是从它前腿跪地
  • 直到父亲从后面使足了劲
  • 才把车子拉上坡的那天开始的
  • 那天 父亲搂着毛驴的瘦腿
  • 像搂着一个老朋友的胳膊
  • 父亲说 老了 咱俩都老了
  • 现在 它或许知道自己不中用了
  • 水不好好喝 草也不好好吃
  • 穿了一辈子的破皮袄
  • 磨光了毛的地方 露出巴掌大的伤疤
  • 我几次让父亲把它卖掉
  • 但几次父亲都把它牵了回来
  • 像早年被老人逼着离婚的两个年轻人
  • 早上出去晚上又怯怯地回来了
  • 那天我从屋里出来
  • 它把干枯的脑袋搭在低矮的圈墙上
  • 声音颤抖着 向我呼唤了几声
  • 那么苍凉 忧伤
  • 父亲说 他知道毛驴想说什么

Shadows

  • by Peng Shibin

  • A cloud drifts across my mind,
  • casting a shadow, first a homeless cat,
  • then a flower, then a dream.
  • Shadows are not made of darkness
  • but connected to their light source.
  • Melancholy is the shadow of longings.
  • The road to the hot spring is long,
  • but I hear songs and birds, sweet fancies,
  • and the fireflies that light the way.
  • Those drooping vines in the wind,
  • the dogs and cats roaming the streets,
  • and fallen leaves, do they still cross our minds?
  • The dark cloud in the sky transforms
  • into the shadow of a lamb, a rain, then a flower,
  • drifting with the silent wind...
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

阴影

  • 彭世彬

  • 阴影 心空一朵飘动的云
  • 一会飘向流浪猫 一会飘向花
  • 一会 飘向梦
  • 阴影不是阴暗 阴影连着光明
  • 阴影相似 折射本真的面目
  • 忧郁 因牵挂而生
  • 那温泉 可望而不可及
  • 歌声与飞鸟 甜美与梦想
  • 莹火虫闪亮 一路前行
  • 想着 那些无依无靠的枯藤
  • 流浪的狗 和猫
  • 落叶飘零 少有人过问
  • 天空 那朵乌云
  • 现出羊羔 雨水和花的影子
  • 风 沉默无语

Mu Xi’s Six Persimmons

  • by Ren Lin

  • The magic of ink wash —
  • solid color here,
  • fainter there, and almost clear in some other places —
  • sumptuous flesh wrapped in thin skin.
  • These two persimmons
  • are good to go with wine.
  • A lack of color, not at all fashionable,
  • no wonder monks are compared to persimmons.
  • In fact these persimmons are monks.
  • Monks, they do not need colors.
  • End of autumn, the fruit is a little tart, a touch of frost,
  • the way of the monks —
  • ethereal, but not lonesome.
  • Monks, they do not possess lonesomeness.
  • Even more intriguing is:
  • the stems of the fruit were painted with firm strokes.
  • At the forefront or in the back,
  • the dry stems, given the color of burnt ink,
  • look all the more touching.
  • *Mu Xi (Muqi Fachang) was a Buddhist monk and painter in Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). His painting Six Persimmons is housed in Daitoku-Ji temple in Kyoto, Japan.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 12

牧谿的《六个柿子》*

  • 人邻

  • 水墨那味儿,
  • 笃实的,
  • 还有淡墨,近乎无墨,皮薄而汁肉饱满的
  • 两个柿子,
  • 颇可以佐酒的。
  • 无色,无款,
  • 也才僧人即柿子,
  • 柿子也即僧人呀。
  • 僧人本无色。
  • 霜降了,一点儿涩涩的味儿,薄薄染上了,
  • 也是僧人的味儿。
  • 淡,可是不孤寂。
  • 僧人本无孤寂。
  • 玄妙的是
  • 隶书味儿的叶柄。
  • 柿子之前,之后,
  • 那干硬的焦墨一样的叶柄,
  • 是更有味儿的。
  • *牧谿,宋末元初禅僧。元吴太素《松斋梅谱》记载:“僧法常,蜀人,号牧谿。喜画龙虎、猿鹤、禽鸟、山水、树石、人物,不曾设色。多用蔗渣草结,又皆随笔点墨而成,意思简当,不费妆缀。”《六柿图》现存日本大德寺龙光院。

Waiting for a Train in the Field of Poetry

  • by Ren Xianqing

  • I'm waiting for a train in the field of poetry.
  • Waiting in hope for its clanging sounds and forceful roaring past!
  • Let its display of great momentum shock me and traverse me.
  • As if eager for a grand celebration, I'm the very first
  • to hear my own thumping heart.
  • With the classics open, thoughts of love growing, and bones unbound,
  • the train speeds up, laden with flowers, vibrant and profuse.
  • Thereupon, who cares if I am driven to join the Liangshan rebels by a pile of words?
  • I don’t mind that I grow melons in empty plots but reap beans;
  • I don’t mind being misread by you or the unkind times.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

等待诗里的火车

  • 任先青

  • 我在等待诗里的一列火车
  • 等待它 铿锵的足音 凌厉的啸呼
  • 大气磅礴 震撼我 穿越我
  • 仿佛等待一次盛大庆典 我率先
  • 听到自己嘭嘭的心跳
  • 经典打开 情思渐盛 骨骼拔节
  • 鲜活 饱和 火车满载花朵疾驶而来……
  • 于斯 我已不在乎被一摞词语逼上梁山
  • 不在乎 空格地里种瓜得豆
  • 不在乎 被你和尖刻的生活 误读

Cliché

  • by Rong Rong

  • A man and a woman—
  • it's like a traffic accident
  • between an old car and an even older car.
  • The old street was rerouted,
  • so they met at the new freeway exchange one day.
  • During a traffic jam, they collided
  • — he and she —
  • like two vehicles.
  • The promises were the first to be broken,
  • but lies would live another day, with growing disappointments.
  • The sky looked shattered through the windshield,
  • and dealing with the damage would devour half of spring.
  • In the dark, fuzzy details and pangs of desire
  • resurfaced again and again.
  • Who in the world knew how to navigate the maze of traffic rules?
  • It hurt because of their commitment,
  • but once again it proved the culprit
  • was the lack of strong will.
  • After one bloody injury: from the nerves to the brain,
  • even the flesh contracted anxiety disorder.
  • Speed limits, red lights, one-way streets, traffic tickets —
  • a love affair became a nightmarish maneuver—
  • no ambulance but time can come to their rescue.
  • They are two survivors.
  • Can he realign?
  • Can she forget the nagging doubts about the car’s reliability?
  • She has become the most careful driver,
  • worried about wrecking her second-hand car.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3

老套的故事

  • 荣荣

  • 我愿意把它看成交通事故
  • 一个男人与一个女人
  • 一辆旧车和一辆更旧的车
  • 十年前的街道早已改道
  • 就在刚落成的立交桥拐弯处
  • 一次堵塞 碰撞
  • 他和她 车与车
  • 报废的总是许诺
  • 谎言在更新 失望在升级
  • 挡风玻璃碎裂了天空
  • 直接损失达半个春天
  • 隐晦的细节 揪心的欲望
  • 在暗处反复开放
  • 严密的交通条例里又不知所终
  • 受伤害的理由也是献身的理由
  • 再一次被证实的
  • 依然是内心脆弱的意志
  • 一次大失血:从感官到神经
  • 连皮肤也患了焦渴综合症
  • 超速 红灯 单行道 罚单
  • 当一场爱情变成一次发疯
  • 时间是最有效的救护
  • 现在是两个幸存者
  • 他偏移的方向是否修复?
  • 而她老在怀疑车辆的性能
  • 这让她成了一个最小心的司机
  • 害怕她的二手车再一次失控

Spring Comes to Tai'erzhuang

  • by Li Yun

  • Tai'erzhuang, Tai'erzhuang, yesterday you saw war,
  • this morning you saw spring.
  • You see, the crabapple trees in Mr. Wan's courtyard
  • are now blooming, white inside, a touch of pink,
  • a world of sweet scents and serenity.
  • Sweet scents and charm, no end of it, Ah!
  • I am not at all detached from this.
  • Last night I came by to deliver the stars for you.
  • This morning I stayed because of a flowering tree.
  • Tai'erzhuang, Tai'erzhuang, right now,
  • standing here with you,
  • at this moment, I sing for spring's splendor.
  • War, peace,
  • peace, war,
  • they have made me a different person.
  • Tai'er Village, as these blossoms
  • dance around you.
  • I must bear an old sorrow,
  • congealed inside here,
  • congealed in old memories.
  • Oh, Tai'erzhuang, I am not a flower witch,
  • but a woman warrior, born here, now bleeding for you.
  • I hear the chant of mantras in the revolving light,
  • om-mani-pad-me-hum.
  • At last an otherworldly monk will come to take me away.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

春到台儿庄

  • 李云(七月的海)

  • 台儿庄台儿庄,昨天你看见战争
  • 今晨你看见了春天
  • 你看万家大院的海棠开了,白里透粉
  • 冷艳馨香的一大片
  • 冷艳馨香的一大片啊
  • 这一定与我有关
  • 昨夜我架着星空而来
  • 今早,我却被一树海棠花留下
  • 台儿庄台儿庄,此刻
  • 我与你站在一起,为无限春光修辞
  • 战争,和平
  • 和平,战争
  • 已让我先后判若两人
  • 台儿庄,当花朵在你怀中
  • 跳舞的一刻
  • 我必须带着记忆的忧伤
  • 凝固在这里
  • 凝固在记忆里
  • 噢,台儿庄,我不是花妖
  • 我曾是你这片土地上流血的女战士
  • 在转动的晨光里
  • 发出诵经的微响
  • 唵嘛呢叭咪吽
  • 我终将要被通灵的僧人带走

Aboard the Ship

  • by Sha Ma

  • Now we are on board, let's not
  • bring up any depressing topics;
  • no more debates about the pet peeves
  • in them capitalist countries.
  • Gluing our asses to this metal grate,
  • doesn't it feel a little numb?
  • We have got to learn to be
  • that girl by the window,
  • eating crispy beans
  • and looking out to the sea...
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

上了船

  • 沙马

  • 上了船就别说些
  • 令人沮丧的话
  • 别议论资本主义国家里
  • 发生的那些鸟事。
  • 一屁股坐在轮船的铁板上
  • 是不是有些麻木。
  • 要向站在窗口的
  • 小女孩学习
  • 她一边吃着豆子
  • 一边望着海水

Predictions of Snow Are Rarely Accurate

  • by Song Huiyuan

  • My wife said,
  • “Predictions of snow are rarely accurate.”
  • Just like on the day of my scheduled return,
  • my daughters are all waiting.
  • It was agreed that it would be yesterday,
  • but still no sign of it today.
  • Even if it does show up, in just a few days
  • all is melted, vanished.
  • May as well be a no show,
  • my wife said.
  • Besides leaving the front door wet,
  • besides leaving every home-coming road wet,
  • what good is snow?
  • What good is snow? And it's so cold!
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

雪的预告总是不准的

  • 宋惠元 (柳思)

  • 妻子说了
  • 雪的预告总是不准的
  • 好比我的归期
  • 女儿都盼着
  • 说好昨日来
  • 今天还没有到
  • 来了也呆不住几天
  • 就化开了,就不见了
  • 有时还真不如不来
  • 妻子说了
  • 除了把家门弄弄湿
  • 把条条归路弄弄湿
  • 雪有什么好
  • 雪有什么好?还那么冷净

Love You a Pound

  • by Song Huiyuan

  • Four tenths cooked rice, three tenths vegetables,
  • two tenths beans, one tenth meat
  • is my unvarying life.
  • Domestic life, fully itemized.
  • I love you too, up to a pound.
  • One tenth kindness and scorn,
  • two tenths getting together and breaking up,
  • three tenths not giving up, still leaves four tenths.
  • I am writing you a lyric poem.
  • Nothing compares to these four tenths,
  • I use four tenths to win the heart of my fair lady..
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 10

爱你正好有一斤

  • 宋惠元(柳思)

  • 四两米饭三两蔬菜
  • 二两豆子一两肉
  • 是我不能离开的生活
  • 家常日子满打满算
  • 我爱你也正好有一斤
  • 一两恩怨二两聚散
  • 三两不舍还有四两
  • 我为你写抒情诗
  • 没有比这四两更管用了
  • 我用四两拨了一千金

In the Same Dream with the Plum Flower

  • by Song Huiyuan

  • Once I saw you in red;
  • that was when you were getting married.
  • The wind came to dress you up with snowflakes;
  • you looked absolutely radiant.
  • Then I saw you in pink,
  • and thought perhaps you had fallen ill.
  • Enduring spring's frigid winds,
  • you looked frail and thin.
  • Ah, plum flower, we had better not marry but to the finest.
  • But some time ago
  • your rosy cheeks began to turn pale
  • until finally looking gossamer and green
  • like a floral spirit awaiting burial,
  • tattered like shadows under the moon.
  • — This is me
  • in the same dream with the plum flower,
  • and I asked her:
  • “With so many choices, why did you marry the spring zephyr?”
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

我和梅花的一场梦

  • 宋惠元 (柳思)

  • 见你红的时候
  • 正是你新嫁的时候
  • 风吹雪花做你的衣裳
  • 裹得你越加红了
  • 见你粉的时候
  • 可是你病了?
  • 春寒风瘦里
  • 你单薄得已经不成样子
  • 梅啊,嫁得不好我们不嫁了
  • 当初
  • 看你一点点失色
  • 后来果然气韵白而又青
  • 像待葬的花魂
  • 月影一样弄碎了
  • ——这是我
  • 和梅花的一场梦
  • 梦里我对梅说
  • 嫁与谁不好,何必嫁春风

Ow, Mama!

  • by Song Yu

  • Ow, Mama!
  • I really don’t like your combing my hair so much.
  • I can’t sit still. Outside, the grasses are all sprouting, Mama,
  • but you still want to give me a red hair tie and a green hair tie,
  • calling me a little spoiled brat,
  • and braiding my hair into twisted doughs.
  • My comrades in the field are shouting battle cries;
  • Mu Guiying is about to lead the charge.
  • My right-hand man Yang Zhongbao, him, him, him,
  • he waits for me to return from the dead.
  • Ow, Mama!
  • The peach-wood comb is growing peach flowers —
  • I am destined to offend with my roaming heart.
  • You cannot cure
  • your little spoiled brat.

  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

哎哟,妈妈

  • 宋雨

  • 哎哟,妈妈
  • 妈妈,我真的不喜欢你再给我梳头
  • 我坐不住。外面的小草都发芽了,妈妈
  • 你还要给我扎上红头绳,绿头绳
  • 一边骂我是黄毛丫头,一边拧着麻花。
  • 伙伴们在野外喊杀阵阵,穆桂英就要挂帅了
  • 我的杨宗保他,他,他
  • 他在等待一个失而复得的我
  • 哎哟,妈妈。
  • 桃木梳子不小心生出了桃红
  • 我这个命犯桃花的
  • 无可救药的
  • 你的野丫头妆

FLOATING SNOW

  • by Wa Dao

  • The temperature drops again,
  • and the cloud ceiling lowers a notch,
  • revealing its pale undertone.
  • Clusters of clouds,
  • like floating dark islands,
  • resuscitate the cold sky with their flesh and blood.
  • Slowly the raggedy wind begin to churn;
  • a powerful storm is gathering force.
  • Ice crystals will coalesce in the clouds,
  • and floating snow that has nothing to cling to
  • will be lost in the vast abyss
  • like traveling money squandered,
  • like a flock of sheep fleeing wolves.
  • A few places will remain sound asleep
  • as the sun stays in its sheath.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

无根之雪

  • 瓦刀

  • 一次降温之后
  • 天空的底线又降了一米
  • 呈现苍白的底色
  • 一簇簇疑云
  • 天空的岛屿
  • 用血肉之躯供养寒冷和欲望
  • 细碎的风蠢蠢而动
  • 拧成一股强劲的寒流
  • 在云的腹部滴水成冰
  • 无根之雪渐渐失去
  • 辽阔的信仰和方寸余地
  • 失去退出余地的盘缠
  • 像撞上狼群的羊,蒙耻遁逃
  • 那时,一些景象还在沉睡
  • 阳光隐于剑鞘

Total Eclipse of the Moon

  • by Wa Dao

  • That is the hole I dug, fit for burying the moon
  • so the sky would be calmer, darker, and deeper,
  • made for an elope, or, even better, an escape.
  • A boat is hidden in the swaying reeds,
  • on board is a small sum of money
  • I prepared for you.
  • Wait for a cue –
  • a bird call or the wind's whistle –
  • to launch the boat into the rocking waves.
  • But don’t take too long to return, say, in two years.
  • when greeneries and lives bestir in the spring.
  • You shall sail back on a big ship.
  • At the riverbank, by the dock, next to a throng of people,
  • perchance we will meet again
  • like two crickets missing their old rivalry, touching
  • before re-engaging in three hundred rounds of wrestling,
  • that is to say if we don’t just walk on by,
  • with a nod, only to say goodbye.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

月全食

  • 瓦刀

  • 那是我掏的洞,正好掩埋月亮
  • 对面的夜,宁静而深邃
  • 适合出轨,更适合出逃
  • 芦苇荡里,有为你准备的小船和
  • 几两碎银
  • 截获一滴鸟鸣或一缕细碎的风声
  • 作为暗号
  • 一叶扁舟就颠簸在烟波浩渺中
  • 时间不要太长,就选择两年后吧
  • 在草木返青,万物萌动的时候
  • 你乘大船而来
  • 在码头、在江边、在人流中
  • 我们不期而遇
  • 就像两只久失对手的蟋蟀
  • 碰碰触须,再战三百回合
  • 也可以装作互不相识
  • 擦亮眼睛之后,擦肩而去

Sometimes

  • by Wa Dao

  • Sometimes I open my eyes
  • and see myself packaged like a suitcase:
  • skull, body, arms and legs,
  • bound by a tight rope,
  • in one sturdy piece.
  • I even glimpse the sealing tape on my mouth
  • in vivid characters:
  • Net Weight: 90 kg.
  • Fragile, Handle With Care, This Side Up.
  • Destination: unknown.
  • Recipient: unknown.
  • Purpose: unknown.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

有时候

  • 瓦刀

  • 有时候,我一睁眼
  • 就看见自己像一件等待寄出的行李
  • 头颅、躯体和四肢
  • 捆扎在一起
  • 结结实实
  • 我还看见我的嘴上贴着封条
  • 上面赫然写着:
  • 毛重90公斤
  • 小心轻摔,切勿倒置
  • 目的地不详
  • 收件人不详
  • 用途不祥

Fantasy of the Lowest Kind

  • by Wang Jiming

  • 1.

  • It happened only once before I was 50, and can never be repeated,
  • when I indulged in an unspeakable pleasure for two years,
  • pure carnal pleasure, sensual pleasure—
  • not only in luxury hotels, but also in cheap hourly rooms or at some dark corners.
  • It happened not only at night, even more often on springtime mornings.
  • Whenever I felt my body was tormented by desires,
  • I would squander away what treasures people eager to save
  • just to indulge the flesh for one moment—
  • making sure the shades of the curtains and the bed sheets,
  • the brightness of the lamps and the ambiance were all right—
  • I indulged in living, and couldn’t care less about what life was for.
  • Of course what I did violated the codes of conduct of my countrymen and would have been condemned if known.
  • Even though it all started with love, but love had no future.
  • Still, I let my body and soul enter another's, my lips pressed on another's, soon
  • all was obliterated and nothing else mattered anymore,
  • including writing and reading after the event
  • until one day I became bored with it. So, not long ago,
  • I curbed the devilish brazenness of my libido
  • and found another way to channel my desires.
  • Otherwise, who knows what would have become of me,
  • probably destroyed, totally destroyed!
  • 2.
  • If only I were sufficiently restless, talented, and idle
  • to publicize our secret pleasures of those years
  • —in poetry or another art form.
  • Recently I felt a new round of desires springing up.
  • Yesterday I passed by the pleasure house
  • where we made love again and again, and all day I was absorbed in the memory
  • and couldn't think clearly, or accomplish anything.
  • So when the night quieted down, I drew your beautiful nude body from memory on a big sheet of paper,
  • and stared at it with my sleepy eyes until dawn.
  • My head was wrapped in the heat of our entangled bodies,
  • the apple scent of your hair, your silky skin and almost perfect crevasse,
  • your magical hands, lips and tongue, my desperate climax and blissful despair,
  • —the pleasure of our love was like a daze, so extraordinary
  • that we couldn’t help returning to it again and again.
  • We even wrote it into our will—
  • It’s time for me to open the hidden chest while we are still in this world.
  • Let me try to tell it under broad daylight.
  • Evoking the power of my desires and ability for graphic fantasies,
  • I will reshape our bodies with their once-youthful strength and beauty,
  • but how I worry that I am too ham-handed at the art of poetry
  • that our secret love would be reduced to something
  • beneath the dignity of our souls.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

最低虚构笔记

  • 王吉明 (北陵王)


  • 五十岁之前仅有的一次———不可能有第二次了。
  • 我沉溺于一种不正当的快乐达两年之久,
  • 那种纯粹肉体的快乐,那种纯粹感官的快乐。
  • 不仅仅在豪华旅馆的房间里,有时候
  • 也在临时租赁的简陋平房里,或者黑暗的角落。
  • 也不仅仅是夜晚,春天的上午应该更频繁。
  • 只要我的肉体整个儿受着欲望的折磨,
  • 我就会愚蠢地忽略掉所有的人们孜孜以求的
  • 贵重事物,而只是专注于感官的舒畅———
  • 甚至于窗帘和床单的色调,灯光的明暗程度,
  • 以及整个空间的氛围———
  • ———我忽略了人生只专注于生命。
  • 当然,我知道在这个国家里我的行为
  • 是有违道德的,受谴责的。尽管
  • 肇始于爱但于爱情却是没有出路的。


  • 然而,当我全身心地进入另一具肉体,
  • 当我的嘴唇上压着另一张嘴唇,
  • 一切都不那么重要了,不存在了,
  • 甚至享受之后的阅读和书写……
  • 幸好后来我开始厌倦了。就在不久前,
  • 我及时地制止了我身上那性欲魔鬼的无耻暴行,
  • 同时给我的欲望找到了另一条通道。
  • 否则,我真的不知道那种不正当的快乐
  • 会怎样地将我毁灭


  • 但愿我激情澎湃、才华横溢又无所事事,
  • 可以把我们持续多年的秘密性爱历程公诸于众。
  • ———以唯美的形式,以诗歌的形式———
  • 我感到新一轮的欲望像暗泉在体内汩汩翻涌。
  • 昨天我走过我们曾在其中做过无数次的
  • 快乐之屋。一整天我不能想别的、干别的。
  • 在一大张白纸上,在夜阑人静时刻,
  • 我画下我记忆中你那迷人的裸体。
  • 我瞌睡的眼盯着那幅涂鸦之作看了一整夜。
  • 温热的头脑里回旋着肉体和肉体的叠加与纠缠,
  • 你头发的苹果香味,你肌肤的润泽,几近完美的裂纹,
  • 你好似被施了魔法的手,你的唇和舌,
  • 进入、撤出,还有我绝望的高潮、幸福的沮丧。
  • ———这段秘密性爱经历是如此与众不同,
  • 多年来使我们欲罢不能,欲说还休。
  • 我们甚至把它写进了遗嘱里———
  • 是到了启封的时候了,趁我们还都活着。
  • 非常有必要通过我的笔让它大白于天下。
  • 我相信在我欲望的管辖之下,我色情斑斑的想象力
  • 能够重塑我们肉体的年轻、健康和俊美,
  • 在诗歌艺术里。我只是担心我唯美的描述流于庸俗,
  • 会把那种持久的见不得人的感官快乐
  • 降低到令人生厌的灵魂的层面。

Dirt Road

  • by Meifu Wang

  • The dirt road and I, we resemble each other—
  • not very modern, nor durable.
  • In a camera lens, you will see us through a yellow haze.
  • If you wish to follow the road to the sea,
  • it will take a morning and afternoon on foot,
  • but there is always a charming fragrance along the way.
  • When I close my eyes, I hear footsteps and wingbeats,
  • in groups of threes and fives, lively and light,
  • a chorus in the air, a simpatico leitmotif
  • that lifts me out of despair.
  • I would listen to it in the morning.
  • I would listen to it in the afternoon.
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

土路

  • 王美富

  • 我和腳前的土路有點相似,
  • 沒什麽現代元素,使不出多少力氣,
  • 面對照相機,總會蒙上一圈黃暈;
  • 如果想去欣賞那心愛的,婆娑的椰林,
  • 還得徒步一個早晨又一個下午,
  • 可是它總是散發出迷人的芳馥。
  • 每當我閉上眼睛,就聽見腳步——
  • 三五成群,輕快,靈活,腳步的合唱,
  • 就像乘載歌聲的翅膀——於是我不再絕望,
  • 也許那時正是早晨,或是黃昏。

Water Droplets

  • by Meifu Wang

  • Water droplets
  • leap off the fall,
  • crash into the cliff wall,
  • bellyflopping
  • down a deep blue hollow.
  • Fair angels, water droplets
  • wake me from a dream
  • by an azalea
  • receiving mists
  • on the bedrock of the gorge.
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

水珠

  • 王美富

  • 水珠
  • 跳离瀑布
  • 冲向山岩
  • 穿过我身体的深渊
  • 像天使 长了翅膀
  • 在头顶上空 飞翔
  • 我的心 如梦初醒
  • 见杜鹃如璟
  • 在河谷
  • 接住水珠

SEA CRAG

  • by Meifu Wang

  • I go, far away from home,
  • with scattered thoughts trailing
  • (ah, my winsome sidekick).
  • Roving till dusk, I need not raise my head
  • to see heaven’s curtain close.
  • But, he arrives
  • more abruptly than the night,
  • soaring from the deep blue sea,
  • using huge talons to stay the earth.
  • He lives in the wintry sea, the blackish sea.
  • He hangs tight as the Earth spins,
  • and turns his face to the rain and the wind.
  • Consider how quietly my thoughts come and go,
  • my days, likewise, waft to and fro.
  • The sky sleeps in the bosom of the sea,
  • and I hear his drunken snore,
  • dark, now, and deep,
  • gentle, and soft,
  • asking me:
  • must you live thinking life is brief?
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

海岩

  • 王美富

  • 我寄居于旅途,
  • 散漫的臆想像小书僮悄悄跟上。
  • 无须抬头,已见低垂的天幕。
  • 他,来得比夜更突兀;
  • 他,屹立于深海之中;
  • 他,用巨爪扣住地球。
  • 在冰冷的海里,在墨绿的海里,
  • 他肩骨嶙峋,背负坎坷的命运,
  • 与地球一起旋转;是他在挡驾风雨。
  • 臆想悄悄地来,悄悄地去,
  • 我的日子也同样飘忽。
  • 天睡在海的胸脯,我听见他的酣声,
  • 深沉且温柔,
  • 告诉我:不必在意人生的短促。

To Melville

  • by Meifu Wang

  • The day plods on, riding an overtired donkey cart,
  • as I slowly grow impatient with the setting sun
  • that malingers after waving goodbye
  • and continues to sprinkle gold dust everywhere,
  • flooding my chamber with an orangish hue.
  • But I am waiting for you,
  • knowing you will come, blending in with the dark.
  • You are not one of those who adore sunny days,
  • looking to show off your silver and gold.
  • You are not in the company of brash flowers
  • that flirt with honey bees
  • in constant talk of love.
  • But I am waiting for you,
  • knowing you will come, blending in with the dark.
  • Deserted by the sun, the sky is perfect
  • for the northern light to show up for a gallivant.
  • You will be here, oh, Mighty Shadow.
  • You will be here, in the charming shade of the night.
  • Oh, night, deep as the sea,
  • I answer your love, deep as the sea.
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

致梅尔维尔

  • 王美富

  • 时间像蹉跎的骡马车
  • 拖曳着走
  • 我开始对夕阳失去耐心
  • 它挥手告别 却慢条斯理
  • 顺便把耀眼的金光撒满水面
  • 彩霞也毫不迟疑地跨进窗户
  • 但是我在等你
  • 知道你和夜晚一起来
  • 你不属于街上的那一伙
  • 他们爱恋白日
  • 依赖白日照亮身上的金色银色
  • 朵朵娇艳的花
  • 常有青头的蜜蜂飞来围舞
  • 在艳阳下一起谈恋爱
  • 但是我在等你
  • 等你来了 那就像
  • 北极光飞旋在太阳沉睡以后的天空
  • 你魁梧的身材 是黑夜的魅影
  • 啊 夜深如海
  • 我对你的爱也深如大海。

To Father

  • by Meifu Wang

  • I knew you were with me only as a phantom,
  • but we spent a beautiful day walking and talking.
  • I kept telling myself how beautiful it was to see you again.
  • I knew you came to me like a phantom,
  • but I said if your phantom brought me such joy
  • that I couldn't tell the difference between the two joys
  • — one from being with the living you, and the other with the phantom you—
  • why should this joy be less than the other joy?
  • Why shouldn't this phantom world be my desired world?
  • But I knew all along when I was with you,
  • while you held my hand and we strolled in the garden,
  • that you were speaking to me as a phantom.
  • Therefore I dreaded the moment when you had to go
  • like Hamlet’s father in Shakespeare’s play.
  • Later on we passed by a long house,
  • a row of cherry trees tended to the loggia
  • with sturdy silhouette holding up the dusky sky.
  • I took a step into the penetralia.
  • I needed to step away for a minute
  • for I didn't want you to see my weary heart;
  • I was dreading the moment when you had to leave.
  • The door of the long house closed behind me,
  • separating me from you and the cherry trees.
  • But hardly was I inside and you outside
  • when I sobbed: “Ah, how have I been sad since you left!”
  • My tears transported you instantly back to me.
  • You held my face up and spoke to me:
  • “Yes, I know you have been sad.”
  • I looked at you and said: “I didn't want you to leave.”
  • You let my head rest on your shoulder, and said: “I know.”
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

父亲

  • 王美富

  • 我知道身边的你只是一个幻影,
  • 但是今天我们一起散步聊天,我对自己说:
  • 能再一次与你相会我是多么的快乐!
  • 我知道身边的你只是一个灵魂,
  • 但是有你在我的身边我是多么的快乐!
  • 我心中满满的喜悦叫我不能分辩
  • 人间的你与灵界的你有甚么不同。
  • 那么今天的喜悦怎会不如往日的喜悦?
  • 今日的重逢怎么会不如不见?
  • 这个幻影的世界怎不是我心爱的世界?
  • 但是我知道,我知道身边的你,
  • 在花园里牵着我手陪我款款谈心的你
  • 只是一个幻影,
  • 于是我怕你很快就要离开,
  • 像哈姆雷特的父亲从莎士比亚的剧场消失。
  • 走着走着我们来到一间长厢房,
  • 厢房的拱廊外侧种了一排樱桃树,
  • 它们的树干在黄昏里显得特别粗壮。
  • 我紧走一步进入房内,
  • 不让你看出我的忧伤:
  • 我担心你很快就要与我告别。
  • 今天相聚,我要为你戴上笑容。
  • 进了长屋,我把木门在身后拉上,
  • 把你和樱桃树留在屋外,
  • 当你一下不在跟前,我就哭了,对自己说:
  • “从你离开那天,我一直多么的伤心!”
  • 但是我的泪水把你唤回眼前,
  • 你用手托着我的脸,对我说
  • “我明白你的忧伤。”
  • 我抬起头来对你说:“我的心不忍你的离别。”
  • 你让我把脸依着你的肩膀,说,“我都明白。”

Dirge

  • by Meifu Wang

  • Right, I didn’t give you a proper burial,
  • not even was I there to see you off on the last day.
  • Is that the reason why,
  • on this dark night
  • with the winds, gentle and fierce,
  • coming from left and right and front and back,
  • that you fly zigzag, descending halfway from sky
  • to disturb this tropical night?
  • But I had always declared my love for you,
  • every day and every hour while you were alive,
  • so why can’t you feel at peace?
  • I would be if I were a dog or something so akin to human spirit.
  • Yes, perhaps once or twice
  • I didn’t pay attention to how I prepared your meal —
  • potato and meat mixed in a bowl set aside for your return.
  • But that day you didn’t return.
  • Then, there were human quarrels that drove you into hiding.
  • You leered at the pale-green faces — faces so familiar —
  • but together you and I sent them away.
  • Tonight on this tropical avenue,
  • someone is singing about an eagle;
  • I ask if she indeed has seen an eagle or perhaps she has seen you.
  • A few spirits are floating amongst the giant banyan shadows
  • the way jazz floats out from many corners of this post-colonial city,
  • with walled-in courtyards, cafés in deep alleys,
  • some non-native souls, the same as mine,
  • in and out of this dark night,
  • in and out of these dimly-lit streets,
  • in and out of my half-native consciousness.
  • Then, suddenly you fly zigzag from dog heaven,
  • halfway between sky and earth,
  • to remind me that I didn’t give you a proper burial.
  • I can dismiss the ghost that descends to accuse me
  • even give him a friendly greeting,
  • just to show that I haven’t forgotten you,
  • but this darkishness, this windiness, and the foreignness of this city
  • will forever remain vivid in my mind
  • — on these very broad avenues,
  • where spirits hang out amongst giant banyan shadows,
  • over walled-in courtyards and music from deep alleys.
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang (in Taipei)

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

挽歌

  • 王美富

  • 是的,我没有为你举行隆重的葬礼,
  • 就是你走的那天我也远在千里。
  • 难道这就是为什么在这个昏黑之夜,
  • 当轻风与狂风从四面八方呼啸而至,
  • 你从空中乘风而降,
  • 打扰这个亚热带岛上的一片空寂?
  • 可是你知道,当你还在的日子,
  • 当你还在的日子每一分每一秒,
  • 我都在向世界宣告我对你的爱
  • 为什么你还不愿意安息?
  • 如果我也是一条狗,曾经体会过人间的情谊,
  • 我一定会感到满足的。
  • 的确,有过那么一两次,
  • 我没有用心为你准备吃的,
  • 把马铃薯和骨头随便拌在一起,
  • 但是那一天你没有回来。
  • 有时人们的争执吓到你跑去躲在角落里,
  • 清澈的眼瞳盯着青绿的脸,
  • 就像天上的火把照出无以言喻的卑鄙,
  • 何况是那么熟悉的面孔,
  • 可是你和我,我们一起把他们驱逐尽净。
  • 今夜,在这条暖洋洋的大街,
  • 有人在浅浅的唱,在唱一首诉说老鹰的歌曲。
  • 我问她是不是真的看见老鹰,
  • 也许她看见的是你。
  • 在这条街上,我还看见古人的灵魂
  • 在老树之间悠游自如,
  • 也听到浪漫的爵士乐从角落飘出。
  • 在这个被殖民过的城市,
  • 街上有几户人家还围着矮墙,深巷里有咖啡屋,
  • 还有那些半洋化的人群,和我也不尽是两回事,
  • 若隐若现,出现在如斯的夜里,
  • 若隐若现,出现在昏暗的小巷里,
  • 若隐若现,出现在这个亚热带的岛屿,
  • 也出没在我不再纯粹乡土的意识里。
  • 而就在这时,
  • 你从空中狗的天堂翩翩而至,
  • 埋怨我没有给你一个隆重的葬礼。
  • 我可以委婉地打发走那个不请自来的面具,
  • 也愿意把他挽留,为的是表明我从来没有忘记你,
  • 但是这深深的夜,这狂野的风,
  • 这个有点陌生的城市,
  • 将会永远的留在我的脑海里。
  • 啊,岛上有郁郁桑桑的菩提树,
  • 粗壮的树干之间有留恋人间的灵魂,
  • 街角有陪伴矮墙的绿竹,
  • 深巷的咖啡屋传来叫人心酸的歌曲。

Reading Baudelaire Into the Night

  • by Meifu Wang

  • You speak to me. You speak to me
  • in a seductive voice.
  • Not that I don’t love your words,
  • not that I don’t dream of your friendship,
  • but your voice stirs up crackling echoes
  • that blast open the gates of hell:
  • The clangors come from all directions —
  • a motorcycle skidding on the asphalt road,
  • a screeching head under the blazing sun,
  • red roosters in the fighting ring,
  • a tidy garden next to the hospital morgue.
  • The walls are no longer useful barriers.
  • You speak to me in rhymes,
  • lifting my soul from the river of gloom,
  • therefore even in sleep, I can feel
  • the hour's soft breeze and hear
  • music from a light year away,
  • from the metaphysical world where you are.
  • But I turn sleepless again at dawn as
  • your sweet voice returns telling glum rumors—
  • cold silence in the skulled church,
  • twisted ghost nets adrift at sea,
  • ducks in the New Year market,
  • spawning salmon in upper Snake River…
  • Then, I remember you are dead, too.
  • Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

夜讀波特萊爾

  • 王美富

  • 你對我說,輕輕地說,
  • 說到我如醉如癡。然而
  • 死亡的迴響从四方湧来,
  • 連你的詩歌与情誼
  • 都不能抵擋来自陰間的嘶吼。
  • 它們已衝破死靈魂的闸口。
  • 死亡的迴響來自四面八方:
  • 急剎車切過柏油路面,
  • 炎陽下某人在戻聲嘶喊,
  • 深掩的鬥雞場羽毛與血光四濺,
  • 殯儀館邊一排排整潔的花園。
  • 人間的溫柔鄉防不勝防。
  • 你對我說,柔聲細語地說,
  • 說到我如醉如癡,然而
  • 死亡的迴響从四方湧來。
  • 連你絕美的詩句與深挚的友誼
  • 都抵擋不住来自陰間的呼嘯。
  • 它們已衝破死靈魂的闸口。
  • 你對我說,輕輕地說,
  • 說到我眼皮沈重,如幻似夢,
  • 仿佛有天使的翅膀隨身撫慰,
  • 仿佛有歌聲來自遙遠的天邊,
  • 那個屬於你的,無邊無際的精神的世界。
  • 天亮之前,我再次驚醒,再次融入你詩歌的世界,
  • 不料陰間的迴響竟從四方湧來:
  • 噴射飛機正在撕破藍色的天空,
  • 陰冷的教堂裡頭顱砌起的灰牆,
  • 平静的大海中大洞小洞的魚網,
  • 春節的菜場籠子裡關著的鴨子,
  • 清淺的溪流裡滿腹爛斑的鮭魚,
  • 我才想起,原來你也已經死去。。

Afternoon

  • by Wang Qiang

  • I have the habit of being transfixed; for instance,
  • this afternoon, which seems to be submerged in water,
  • I haven’t moved my eyes away from the wall.
  • My eyes follow the sunrays' imprint,
  • moving from the ground up the wall;
  • they have covered a wider swath than a few hours ago.
  • Shadows are this way, they come secretly
  • to occupy the space daylight leaves out.
  • Oftentimes I stay in such heavenly silence,
  • easily expending the entire day,
  • and do not feel the slightest remorse about it.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

午后

  • 王强(红石)

  • 我总是容易迷恋上一种事物。比如
  • 在这个似沉在水里的午后,
  • 我的目光没有轻易从一侧的墙壁上拿开
  • 我紧盯着一束阳光的痕迹
  • 从地上一直移动到墙壁上 。
  • 它比几个小时之前波及的范围更大。
  • 阴影总是这样隐蔽的占领
  • 白昼空出的部分。
  • 我总是在神授的寂静里
  • 轻易耗尽一天的时光
  • 而我并不感到丝毫的悔意。

Aba Above the Clouds*

  • by Wang Zhiguo

  • Across ten thousand miles of cerulean blue,
  • there is a cloud, dreaming and turning.
  • Amidst prayer chants, a monastery
  • rises above the mountain mist.
  • One thousand and one lamas,
  • one thousand hymns, but one man
  • stands before his God tongue-tied.
  • Aba sits in the clouds.
  • From the north to the south, a sea of grass undulates,
  • but look,
  • in the wilderness stands a Kelsang Metog**,
  • lifting up the lonely sky
  • with its deep blue sorrow.
  • Translator’s notes:
  • *Aba: Aba Tibetan and Qiang Automatous Prefecture in Sichuan Province.
  • ** Kelsang Metog is the Tibetan word for Cosmea flower.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

云上阿坝

  • 王志国

  • 十万里蔚蓝
  • 一朵云,梦里翻身
  • 云山的庙宇
  • 梵呗声中耸立
  • 一千零一个喇嘛
  • 一千个诵经,一个人
  • 神前失声
  • 云上的阿坝
  • 大地广袤,众草飞奔
  • 突兀的是
  • 寂寥旷野上,一朵格桑
  • 蓝的忧伤
  • 独自撑起一片寂寞云天

Barren Mountain, Ancient Temple

  • by Wang Zhiguo

  • There are no likenesses of Buddha,
  • no lamas chanting sutras,
  • no lamps burning fragrant oil,
  • but a broken wall,
  • joining the barren grassland and the sky,
  • all dedicated to
  • bleakness.
  • On this barren mountain,
  • where men rarely come,
  • the ruin of a temple
  • embodies a vague human longing
  • placed by the benevolent gods.
  • Other than the whistling of the mountain wind,
  • it feels almost like nothingness.
  • Only the mottled inscriptions on the walls,
  • as if hidden, as if present,
  • radiate a kind of unearthly beauty.
  • In the courtyard, the yellow grass trembles in the wind,
  • humble like my people;
  • to this day they persist to comprehend life and death
  • even if the wheel of fortune always returns to suffering.
  • Only the wind
  • forever blows and tugs,
  • as if wanting to pull up trees
  • including the hidden root hair.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

荒山古寺

  • 王志国

  • 没有佛像,没有诵经的喇嘛
  • 更没有香火油灯
  • 只有断墙上连天的荒草
  • 供奉着
  • 荒凉
  • 在人迹罕至的荒山中
  • 一座破败的寺庙
  • 像是仁爱的神
  • 留给人间的一个模糊念想
  • 除了呼呼的山风
  • 这里静得近似虚无
  • 只有錾刻在墙壁上斑驳的经文
  • 若隐若现,透着灵气
  • 满园的荒草在风中颤抖
  • 卑微如我的人民
  • 虽历经轮回之苦
  • 但至今,仍在坚持参悟
  • 世间生死
  • 惟有风
  • 持久地吹拂着
  • 仿佛要将那未知的根须
  • 连根拔起。

THE ZOO, Excerpts

  • by WeiWei

  • ■ GIANT PANDA
  • Every time I go to the zoo to see the giant panda,
  • I remind myself:
  • its white is not a white cat’s white,
  • its black is not a black cat’s black,
  • but more like an infant's eyes,
  • with innocent white and innocent black.
  • Every time I return from the zoo,
  • I rejoice because of the panda:
  • among everything from pink blossoms to green leaves,
  • from wildlife to domesticated animals,
  • from monochrome to color photography,
  • the panda looks more authentic than the rest, refusing
  • to lure with striking colors.
  • “I so hope my evolution
  • can help you fulfill your dream to regain simplicity.”
  • Every time I think of the giant panda,
  • I ponder the purpose of its evolution.
  • .

  • ■ TIBETAN ANTELOPE
  • These days I love to paint Tibetan Antelopes,
  • but never succeeded with a close resemblance:
  • every ewe ended up with a crying face,
  • and the rams looked as severe as Magistrate Blue Sky*.
  • That’s when I decided to go see the antelopes.
  • Like German Chancellor Willie Brandt,
  • who went to Warsaw in 1970,
  • tomorrow I will go to Kekexili**.
  • Like Brandt going to the holocaust memorial,
  • I will go to Lake Kekexili.
  • Like him, I want to go to water's shore
  • to offer a wreath, kneel down, and pray:
  • “ God forgive us!
  • We pray these suffering souls will find peace.”
  • Translator’s note:
  • *Nickname for Justice Bao Zheng (999–1062 CE), a legendary official in China's Song Dynasty and the Chinese symbol of justice.
  • **Kekexili, or Hoh Xil, is an isolated region in northeastern Tibetan Plateau, an important habitat for Tibetan Antelope.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

动物园 组诗 (节选)

  • 围围(付正洪)

  • ■ 大熊猫
  • 每一次去动物园看大熊猫,
  • 我时时提醒自己:
  • 它的白不是白猫的白,
  • 黑也不是黑猫的黑,
  • 而是一个婴儿
  • 眼白的白,眼黑的黑。
  • 每一次从动物园回来,
  • 我都为它感到庆幸:
  • 从红花到绿叶,
  • 从野生到家养,
  • 从黑白照相机到彩色照相机,
  • 它总是一副拒绝出彩的样子。
  • “我多么希望我的进化史,
  • 能够圆你的退化之梦。”
  • 每一次想到大熊猫,
  • 我就想到它进化的目的。
  • ■ 藏羚羊
  • 这一阵子我爱画藏羚羊,
  • 可怎么也画不像:
  • 画母的像哭丧,
  • 画公的像包青天。
  • 于是我决定和藏羚羊见见面。
  • 像德国总理维利•勃兰特
  • 1970年去华沙,明天
  • 我去可可西里。像他
  • 去犹太人死难者纪念碑,
  • 我去可可西里湖。明天
  • 我要在可可西里湖畔
  • 像他一样
  • 献花圈,下跪,祈祷:
  • “上帝,饶恕我们吧,
  • 愿苦难的灵魂得到安宁。”

Poet's Indignation

  • by Wei Xue

  • Previously I thought
  • they only fought on paper.
  • Their indignation sounded kind of feeble,
  • too weak to withstand a headwind.
  • Those in power laughed, and the rich mocked:
  • “Let them go crazy.”
  • Their screams were so pale, just like their complexions.
  • But in fact there is a tiny flame in their hearts,
  • an eternal flame,
  • that still burns in Gu Cheng’s(1) black eyes
  • and Haizi’s springtime garden.
  • There will come one midnight
  • when everyone is awakened by Beidao’s(2) fatal gunshot.
  • God knows this time who will be the one
  • hanging upside down from the tree!
  • (1): Gu Cheng, Haize were two poets who committed suicide in recent history.
  • (2) Beidao is a widely admired contemporary Chinese poet.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

诗人的愤怒

  • 未雪

  • 原本以为
  • 他们只在纸页上抗争
  • 那种愤怒多少有点单薄
  • 和弱不禁风
  • 当权者笑了,有钱人笑了:
  • 让他们去疯吧
  • 喊声苍白一如他们的脸色
  • 其实他们内心有一团小小的火焰
  • 怎么都吹不灭
  • 火焰里有顾城的黑眼睛
  • 还有海子的春天
  • 总有一天午夜
  • 所有人会在北岛致命一枪中惊醒
  • 那倒挂在树上的
  • 会是谁呢?

Jam Session at the Lotus Pond

  • by Wuding

  • Quickly they flee the sky
  • and come down as heavy rain,
  • falling on me and darkening my sun-bleached frock.
  • A brood of cicadas sing a red-army song,
  • cheering up this summery day.
  • The wind blows and blows, minding its own business.
  • A lotus seedpod sways in the twilight,
  • standing tall over a pond of leaves, all gently caroling.
  • The night before, the fireflies didn't turn on their lights,
  • leaving the toads to croak in and out in the dark;
  • they sang out of tune, nowhere close to a harvest song,
  • but the rain kept falling, striking on the rice flowers.
  • It is tempting but too dangerous to look back.
  • The wind is picking up, bending the sunrays,
  • but it cannot sway the iron bloc of gone-by days
  • that rubbed against the skin of my tempestuous youth...
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

莲叶乱叫

  • 巫丁

  • 水滴纷纷逃离天空 一场豪雨
  • 让布衣的颜色 淡了又深
  • 铺天盖地的鸣蝉唱红歌
  • 继续 季节喧嚣的传统
  • 而风在吹 风自由自在
  • 晨光中的一支莲蓬
  • 摇摆 一池莲叶乱乱地轻叫
  • 昨夜萤虫熄灯 蛙声参差不齐
  • 雨 浇湿所有的稻花
  • 不着调 蛙们不唱丰年
  • 这时候怀旧 迷人而危险
  • 风起 吹动那些光线
  • 吹不动日子 日子坚硬如铁
  • 碰痛旧时光中的莽撞少年……

THE NAKED FIELD

  • by Ah Xin

  • A brutal wind rolls over the naked field.
  • Under heavy chunky ice, the big river slows down.
  • On horseback,
  • Two brothers, Kampot and Tenzin, and I trot along the river
  • with ice crystals on our mustaches and eyelashes.
  • Who is ahead of us? Is anyone waiting, to make tea for us?
  • Who has dragged us into this thangka landscape?
  • One ashen-black horse, one sunset-red horse, and the last one is maroon with snowflakes.
  • The wind fills our parkas, we tighten our belts.
  • Men and horses move quietly upwind, over the frozen naked earth.
  • Who is waiting for us ahead, making a pot of black tea?
  • Which messenger from the dead throws us into this destiny,
  • to ford upstream of this stupendous river?

  • Translated by Duck Yard Lyricists, a group of devoted poetry lovers: Meifu Wang, Michael Soper, Peter Micic & Johan Ramaekers
  • Simultaneously broadcast in China via WeChat (微信) by our partner — China's Poetry Journal (诗刊): http://www.zgshige.com/c/2020-01-13/11820877.shtml


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

裸 原

  • 阿 信

  • 一股强大的风刮过裸原。
  • 大河驮载浮冰,滞缓流动。
  • 骑着马,
  • 和贡布、丹增兄弟,沿高高的河岸行进,
  • 我们的睫毛和髭须上结着冰花。
  • 谁在前途?谁在等我们,熬好了黑茶?
  • 谁把我们拖进一张画布?
  • 黑马涂炭,红马披霞,栗色夹杂着雪花。
  • 我们的皮袍兜满风,腰带束紧。
  • 人和马不出声,顶着风,在僵硬的裸原行进。
  • 谁在前途等我们,熬好了黑茶?
  • 谁带来亡者口信,把我们拖入命运,
  • 与大河逆行?

Parting Before Daybreak

  • by An Qi

  • First, the sky,
  • then, daybreak,
  • finally, parting time.
  • Local time is seven in the morning according to Beijing TV.
  • As a child, I liked to linger in bed
  • to wait for daybreak.
  • My silver broach stayed in its soft dormant curve.
  • I counted my fingers,
  • exactly ten.
  • Almost daybreak,
  • but the sky is about to go dark.
  • The sky lights up when you come. The sky darkens when you go.
  • Bright-sky days, dark-sky days. Days come and days go.
  • You come, you go, coming and going, walking to me, and away from me.
  • Now a grown-up, I still daydream,
  • waiting for daybreak like waiting for an archaeologist
  • to unearth me with a spade,
  • exposing me to daylight.
  • Oh, oh, just as I feel the thrill, I see your hand leaving.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 11

天不亮就分手

  • 安琪

  • 天是一例
  • 亮是一例
  • 分手是最后一例
  • 电视播报现在是北京时间7点整
  • 小时候我经常躺在床上
  • 等天亮
  • 一块弯曲的银制别针挽留了睡眠的感觉
  • 我数了数指头
  • 不多不少正好十根
  • 天要亮了
  • 天不亮了
  • 天亮了你来了天不亮了你走了天亮天
  • 不亮天天天天亮天不亮
  • 你来了你走了来来走走走来了又走了
  • 长大了我经常迷糊等天像个考古
  • 工作者把我挖起
  • 亮是一柄铁锹拍拍我
  • 呵呵,我一激动看见你的手刚刚离去



Evening Repast

  • by Ba Ling

  • To focus our attention better,
  • let’s divide our preparation into a few stages:
  • remove the scales, slit the belly, scoop out the guts, and rinse.
  • Another example: first, choose a plump clove of garlic,
  • then, allow the best soil and the softest sunlight to change its character,
  • to transform its life.
  • During an evening repast, in the spirit of mutual celebration,
  • my son and I focus our attention within the radius of the candle light.
  • “You see, owing to our efforts,
  • instead of eating garlic,
  • we are eating fresh garlic shoots.
  • They are like fish, very shapely, very seductive.”
  • Translated by Meifu Wnag and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 14

晚宴

  • 八零

  • 为了集中注意力
  • 我们将一件事分成几个阶段
  • 去鳞,剖腹,掏秽物,冲洗。
  • 另外的例子:选饱满蒜瓣,优质泥土和柔和的阳光
  • 让事物发生质变,
  • 以改变生活形态。
  • 我和儿子在盛大的晚餐中相互庆贺
  • 精神集中于一小片烛光里
  • “瞧,由于我们的努力,
  • 我们不再吃蒜,我们
  • 吃上了新鲜的蒜苗,它们有
  • 鱼儿一样诱人的身段。”

I HAVE BEEN PRACTICING HOMETOWN DIALECT

  • by Bai Gongzhi

  • The tree I brought here from the countryside has only bare ribs left,
  • its leafy twigs clipped away. New shoots grow
  • on old wounds, but they swish and rustle with a Beijing twang.
  • I have been practicing my hometown dialect,
  • mostly in the deep woods or on a cropland.
  • I hope to regain my mother's lilt and flow
  • that echoed through the mountains,
  • especially when she called us for dinner. I am an absent son,
  • missing home-cooking, dreaming of
  • returning to my elderly father, to the sounds of Nature,
  • to be graceful like the handsome cornstalks; the wind
  • has carried my longings to somewhere far, far away.
  • I have been practicing my hometown dialect,
  • for fear folks would treat me like an out-of-towner
  • if I err in speech when I indeed go home again.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang & Michael Soper
  • Simultaneously broadcast in China via WeChat (微信) by our partner — China's Poetry Journal (诗刊): https://wemp.app/posts/2aa31f02-596a-4006-a524-bec76b56280f


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No.

我一再练习方言

  • 白公智

  • 一棵树进城,被截去了枝叶
  • 只剩下肋骨。从伤疤里萌发的新芽
  • 开枝散叶的声音,都是普通话
  • 我一再练习方言。面对
  • 一片树林,一畦庄稼
  • 重新找回方言的抑扬,和顿挫
  • 让回音,再次从山谷荡出
  • 母亲喊归的黄昏。让炊烟
  • 再次牵回游子回家的脚步
  • 父亲拄锄而立,聆听大地物语
  • 如玉米长舞水袖,一阵风
  • 就把乡情,送向远方以远
  • 我一再练习方言。因为我怕
  • 真的回到故乡,因为说错了一句话
  • 乡亲们就把我当成了外乡人

An Epitaph

  • by Xin You

  • Here lies an untiring minstrel.
  • He carried his heart around, singing everywhere he went.
  • At present, he’s asleep with ten volumes of poetry
  • under his pillow.
  • In his writing, he took great pains
  • to sing the praises of stones—obstinate ones
  • with rough edges, contending with wind and gale.
  • In his verses, he liked to write about weeds,
  • weeds trampled by animals
  • and weeds nibbled and gnawed by birds and beasts.
  • In the rain, the plants raised their heads high.
  • In addition, he more than once
  • described wild flowers, plain-looking wild flowers
  • and gorgeous wild flowers of all varieties.
  • He picked the prettiest one by hand
  • to take her home as his bride.
  • In the remaining pages, he cursed in the name of conscience.
  • He cursed the dark nights
  • and the men and things as dark as those nights.
  • He offended quite a few people, and ruined his own reputation.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

墓志铭

  • 辛酉

  • 这是一个不倦的歌者。
  • 他在世的时候,手提心脏,歌唱了一辈子。
  • 如今,他睡着了。枕头底下
  • 压着十卷诗歌。
  • 在这些诗歌里,他不厌其烦地
  • 歌颂着石头,倔强的石头
  • 他那粗砺的棱角,抵御过一场大风。
  • 在这些诗歌里,他总是不停地
  • 写到野草,那些被牲畜践踏过的野草
  • 那些被禽兽啃咬过的野草
  • 在雨中,昂起了头颅。
  • 除此之外,他还不止一次地
  • 写过野花,朴素的野花
  • 艳丽的野花……各式各样的野花
  • 他将她们中最美的一朵
  • 娶回家去,做新娘子。
  • 剩下的篇幅里,他诅咒,以良知的名义
  • 诅咒黑夜
  • 诅咒黑夜一样的人,和事物。
  • 他得罪了不少人,没有好名声。

A Night of Nihilism

  • by Yan Hen

  • Every time the temple summons, they respond.
  • Its huge stone steps roll out like a silent tongue.
  • Prayers come with fears written on their faces: the rocks that I search for,
  • are they really only fleeting clouds, too flimsy to lean on?
  • Prayers come, with their hearts overrun by rain,
  • overrun by dusky sky, murmuring their parents’ names.
  • Tell us,
  • Ancestors, we are here to make our offerings, what do you want?
  • Tell us.
  • But He who looks down from heaven
  • sees only long slender hooks hanging down from the oil lamps...
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 3

虚无主义的夜晚

  • 胭痕

  • 寺庙召之即来。
  • 巨大的石阶,犹如沉默的舌头。
  • 到来者满脸惊惧:我要寻找的石块
  • 难道真是头顶的流云?轻得无一丝依托?
  • 到来者携着内心的庭院
  • 携着庭院里经久不歇的雨,腼腆的黄昏和父母的名字
  • 说吧。
  • 寺庙里供奉的祖先们,你们要什么?
  • 说吧。一个匍匐在星空之上的胸膛,
  • 他看见的是,灯盏里又细又长的倒刺。

Untitled

  • by Yan Meijiu

  • The art of playing invisible was lost
  • before Song Dynasty, a contemporary poet said,
  • but the truth is that in our beautiful country,
  • many still practice this technique superbly.
  • They are different from the old master Luo Gongyuan,
  • who did it to frighten the emperor when chiding him.
  • Neither do they delude themselves like some ancient fool
  • who believed in his mental power to become invisible
  • and asked a tiger for its hide.
  • The modern-day experts vacation in the temples,
  • pray at the alter, and sing praises of Nature's serenity.
  • They know every secret path in and out of the mountains,
  • and hold their tongues when necessary.
  • They live invisibly at life's outskirts with perfect temperaments.
  • Year after year, without looking right or left.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

无题

  • 颜梅玖(玉上烟)

  • 雷平阳说,罗公远的隐身术
  • 到宋朝就失传了
  • 事实证明,在我们美丽的国度
  • 很多人都精通这种法术,但我们不像罗公远
  • 动辄掰着指头数落皇帝,吓坏他
  • 也不像一叶障目那个傻瓜
  • 有人很干脆,不与虎谋皮
  • 但坚持目盲
  • 有人住庙宇,上佛堂,悠悠然吟诵晓风明月
  • 暗通上下山的路径
  • 有人懂得什么时候要管住自己的嘴巴
  • 在生活附近生活的隐形人
  • 几十年也没长出什么坏脾气
  • 不左看,不右看
  • 就是路边那颗被碾碎的头颅,也看都不看

Golden Rice

  • by Yang Kang

  • The wind blows, sending the crickets
  • up to the rice stalks that are flowering.
  • In no time, the rice will be golden.
  • Starting with a few stems,
  • a few paddies, then, almost infectiously,
  • every single stalk in the valley will look coy,
  • bending its head.
  • The rice is golden. The countryside turns boisterous.
  • The macho guys and the domestic-minded women
  • will all abandon their pastimes.
  • Even the sparrows that hide in the trees will become chatty.
  • Yellow cattle still graze in the field;
  • children chase and run, tagging along with grownups,
  • still in a playful mood after the sun goes down.
  • But the rice is now golden.
  • The children count their fingers.
  • When the rice is golden, school will start
  • in just a few days.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

稻子黄了

  • 杨康

  • 风一吹,蚂蚱就跳到
  • 正在扬花吐穗的稻子上
  • 紧接着稻子就黄了。先是几株
  • 是一片片黄的稻子,再就是
  • 山沟沟里被感染着的稻子
  • 所有的稻子羞涩起来,低着头
  • 稻子黄了。乡村热闹起来
  • 那些汉子们,和看家
  • 的媳妇们都没得清闲
  • 就连躲在树上的麻雀
  • 也叽叽喳喳。老黄牛们还能
  • 在田间地头啃点青草
  • 娃娃们追着跑着,尾随大人
  • 暮色暗下来,娃娃们还没尽兴呢
  • 可是稻子黄了。娃娃们盘算着
  • 稻子一黄,再过几天就要开学了

The Missing

  • by Yang Xie

  • In this midnight hour, I find you in front of me.
  • A total shock!
  • Long time no see! We are now complete strangers.
  • When and where did you go missing
  • (Ah, so difficult to realize!)
  • all this time before you showed up again?
  • You bring to this space an unusual atmosphere.
  • Your demeanor, proud and uncompromising,
  • as if you can’t care less, as if you come from the Wei & Jin period.
  • My hands are sweating,
  • for I am unable to find a place
  • to accommodate you — for which I feel ashamed.
  • Even more, I cannot forgive myself for my mistakes
  • —It was only because of a cold spell,
  • I let you swept away, gone missing.
  • In this midnight hour, you, gone for so long,
  • cast a contemptuous look at me; your faint sneer
  • sends a permanent chill down my spine.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

失踪者

  • 杨邪

  • 在深夜,目睹你的闪现
  • 蓦然一惊——
  • 久违了的身影,似乎完全陌生
  • 什么时候消失,在哪儿
  • 哦,几乎是无从感知的
  • ——在你赫然显现之前
  • 弥漫着,多么特殊的气息
  • 而姿态是骄傲的,不合作的
  • 大大咧咧——像是来自魏晋
  • 我的手心在出汗,因为怎么也
  • 找不到能够收容你的
  • 一个处所——甚至,我感到羞愧
  • 而我不能饶恕自己犯下的错误
  • ——居然,由于一个寒战
  • 你再次被淹没,消失无踪
  • 在深夜,失踪者——你留下了
  • 一个鄙夷的眼神,若无若有的冷笑
  • 让我久久地,脊背发凉

Lanzhou: The Growing-Up Years

  • by Yang Yang

  • Today, a low-salt diet is promoted for health, but I remember the old days without sugar.
  • Five boys, all sugar-deficient,
  • queue up like an uneven row of sunflowers,
  • but each pushed up an inch after the rain.
  • We had no sugar, but were still plenty happy.
  • Living by the railroad tracks, the steam train was a toy;
  • up and down and around it we played
  • until the day Little Donkey's dad died by lying on the tracks.
  • The black train puffed away
  • in the same old direction, but our childhood ended there.
  • Let me jot down another memory here.
  • One day I saw a rooster flapping and hopping in panic
  • because his throat was cut;
  • the villain raised his bloody hand
  • to make a print on an abandoned white wall;
  • he wanted to add a personal mark next to a political slogan.
  • Years have gone by and now I can't
  • seem to remember what the slogan was
  • or how I felt about it.
  • Those were not sweet days.
  • The iron horse took every piece of metal from the hands of the blacksmiths,
  • and my childhood was erased in just one morning.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 12

兰州:生长之城

  • 阳飏

  • 健康生活提倡少盐,那个年代缺糖
  • 五个缺糖的孩子
  • 仿佛一排高高低低的向日葵
  • 一场雨,一个个就往上蹿一截
  • 缺糖,但不缺少快乐
  • 家住铁道边,看喷着蒸汽的黑火车像是大玩具
  • 跑来跑去,更像是不知疲倦的脏孩子
  • 直到有一天,二驴子的爸卧轨自杀了
  • 黑火车依然喷着蒸汽
  • 跑来跑去,我的童年结束了
  • 我想在这儿写下记忆中的一件事
  • 那天,看见一只割开了喉管的大公鸡
  • 扑扇着翅膀蹦达着
  • 杀鸡人在一堵废弃的白墙上按了个血手印
  • 紧挨一条斑驳的旧标语
  • 是五指清晰的血手印
  • 多少年的时间过去了
  • 那条斑驳的旧标语写的什么内容呢
  • 唤起了我什么样的感情呢
  • 缺糖的年代
  • 喷着蒸汽的黑火车用光了铁匠铺的铁
  • 我一个早晨就浪费完了自己的童年

The Wolf

  • by Yang Zi

  • For some time now I have kept a wolf inside of me.
  • I can’t count how many sheep and cattle I have fed him;
  • one meal less and he would howl for wanting
  • and bite and tear my flesh.
  • Why do I keep a wolf inside of me
  • that in order to feed it I must toil daily,
  • treating trifles as wise moves,
  • chanting om-mani-padme-hum for consolation?
  • I don’t want this wolf inside of me,
  • but there’s no way I can just kill it.
  • I let it drink my blood and eat my flesh, knowing
  • he will leave my bones untouched.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

一匹狼

  • 杨梓

  • 我何时在身体里养了一匹狼
  • 给它喂了多少头牛羊早已无法说清
  • 即使少喂一顿,它就不停地嗥叫
  • 并且撕咬我的身体
  • 我怎么会在身体里养了一匹狼
  • 使我的一生只为它奔波
  • 并把烦恼当成智慧
  • 默诵唵嘛呢叭咪吽
  • 我不要在身体里养着一匹狼
  • 可我杀掉不掉它
  • 只能任它喝我的血、吃我的肉
  • 但它吃不了我的骨头

In Saint Maria's Hospital

  • by Yao Feng

  • From under the white bed sheet
  • you turn to me and extend a hand,
  • slender, withered,
  • red cardamom on your fingernails
  • like plum blossoms brightening up winter twigs.
  • These fingernails, these blossoms,
  • you once and again clip away,
  • once and again allow them to bloom.
  • They are the outermost bits of your body,
  • yet always so clean, so fresh-colored,
  • even in this place
  • with all the chaos of a public hospital,
  • situated in a chaotic country.
  • I take your hand and feel the ripples
  • of blood through brown-colored veins,
  • pulsing back and forth through your red finger tips.
  • Remember, you said this in your book:
  • We live in dying bodies,
  • and fingernails are the last to decompose.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

在圣玛丽娅医院

  • 姚風

  • 从白色的被单中,你向我伸出一只手
  • 它修长,枯干,涂着蔻丹的指甲
  • 像梅花,把冬天的树枝照耀
  • 这些指甲,这些花,你一次次剪掉
  • 又让它们一次次怒放
  • 它们,位于你生活和身体的边缘
  • 但总是这么洁净,这么鲜艳
  • 哪怕在这所
  • 和国家一样混乱的国家医院
  • 抓住你的手,感到褐色的血管隆起
  • 血液蠕动,从红色的指尖折返
  • 记得你在书中说,在死亡的肉体中
  • 指甲是最后腐烂的物质

The Sheep Come to Town

  • by Ye Zhou

  • In the midnight hour, the sheep come to town
  • through blustery snow,
  • across the city square.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep come to town
  • in winter coats, woolly side out,
  • like a group of prophets under torchlight.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep come,
  • crossing the Yellow River
  • into City of Lanzhou from the west.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep come,
  • straight to the butcher’s knives
  • behind the meat shops.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep come to town
  • like the holy scripture
  • unrolling.
  • The hidden happiness of childhood
  • is like milk pails
  • buried under the mountain snow.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • with brave footsteps,
  • like playful kids, around 18 of them.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • and carried the doors and beds away
  • in bamboo baskets.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came,
  • turning the city into a ghost town
  • and carrying the torch to their own sacrifice.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • with human faces, a squad
  • of rebels crushed in an uprising.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • with a chance to redeem
  • their fatherland: parents of an orphan.
  • The beautiful chant
  • has impressed those innocents
  • to leave home, to kneel down and submit.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • like a chorus of angels
  • in cheerful spirits.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • in the name of DEATH,
  • sitting on the ridge of the world.
  • In the midnight hour, the sheep came
  • in black or in white,
  • the look of love at the dawn of day.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

入城的羊群

  • 叶舟

  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 顶着大风雪
  • 穿过广场。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 反穿皮袄
  • 像一堆灯火中的小先知。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 东渡黄河
  • 来到兰州。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 迎着刀子
  • 走向肉铺。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 像一部圣经
  • 随便摊开。
  • 一阵美妙的童年时光
  • 雪山下着
  • 雪山埋住奶桶。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 脚步踢踏
  • 仿佛十八个儿童。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 提着筐子
  • 拾走门板和床。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 让城市空着
  • 接下牺牲的灯笼。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 是人,是群众
  • 是一伙失败之后的义军。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 是一次拯救
  • 祖国:一个孤儿的双亲。
  • 一阵美妙的念诵
  • 让赤子目击
  • 让赤子走出、跪下、敬受。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 合唱队员们
  • 精神抖擞。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 名叫“死”
  • 骑住人间的屋梁。
  • 午夜入城的羊群
  • 一半黑着,一半白着
  • 像黎明之下的爱情。

Summer Days, 2. The Horror of Eternal Sunshine

  • by Yi Hu

  • Today's sunshine is prettier than yesterday's,
  • but there is something horrifying about it.
  • Yesterday, I lay nude in the sun,
  • pondering how to compose a murder story,
  • but today’s sunlight seems murderous
  • for its own sake.
  • It would be bad
  • if things continue this way
  • without a drop of rain or a wisp of wind
  • to stir my hair.
  • In that case, the romance will be lost,
  • and most definitely
  • I will lose my cool and be unable to write—
  • gone are the heightened suspense
  • and other extraordinary plots,
  • exactly what a thriller needs.
  • If every single person is like me,
  • feeling too ill-at-ease
  • to pursue what he wants,
  • it only tells the fact that
  • today’s sunshine, really,
  • has gone over the top.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 4

夏日两则, 2
天天阳光好其实是一种恐怖

  • 亦乎

  • 今天的阳光比昨天还好
  • 那其实是一件可怕的事
  • 昨天,阳光好亦乎一丝不挂
  • 想着写关于谋杀的文艺小说
  • 今天,阳光好亦乎就有一种
  • 恐怖感,是真的
  • 如果再这么好下去
  • 没有雨,也没有让人头发
  • 微微飘起的风
  • 那,那“真是不文艺”
  • 亦乎肯定是
  • “不能安下心来”
  • 写花花想看的,特
  • 悬疑的,又是那特什么的
  • 关于谋杀的小说

  • 如果每个人都不能
  • 安下心来
  • 干自己想干的事
  • 那只能说明
  • “今天的阳光”真的
  • 真的是太厉害了

11 Roses

  • by Yi Youxi

  • One flower begins to wilt,
  • another flower flaps its wings.
  • Three more flowers hide in their buds,
  • the others
  • show no visible activity.
  • In the beginning,
  • I changed water for them arduously,
  • but they requires less attention now.
  • I added water
  • the day before yesterday,
  • and can hardly tell
  • if it has reduced by even a drop.
  • Mr. Jiao Zhongqing, the classic tragic hero,
  • must have talked to himself:
  • Say it, say I am stupid.
  • Say I’m a fool that I don’t understand elopement.
  • I am not not considering
  • elopement.
  • After all, I must bring a toothbrush, right?
  • Toothbrushes are not commonly shared,
  • and pants, too.
  • Shouldn't I also put together a clean change of clothes?
  • What about soap and shampoo?
  • I am not a knight that comes and goes like a shadow,
  • in forever-prim white clothes,
  • and long wavy hair free of dust.
  • Have you ever seen a knight
  • that has to deal with cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar?
  • Have you ever seen a knight
  • that washes his feet or uses the toilet?
  • On the contrary, I am only a common man,
  • so I must have these items:
  • pots, pans, bowls, ladles, a tub,
  • wash towel for cleaning,
  • foot cloth and toilet paper, right?
  • Her little feet are dainty,
  • suitable only for delicate walking —
  • running she can't possibly do,
  • but I won’t be able to carry her on my back,
  • so I may get a horse wagon,
  • padded with a futon and quilts,
  • and load up two sacks of rice, mosquito coils,
  • brushes, paper, ink stick, ink stone, and the harp that's part of her dowry.
  • I must also bring along her weaving wheels.
  • Only then would I choose a night, pitch dark
  • for a quiet exit,
  • to settle in an entirely new place.
  • I can teach in a small private school;
  • she will weave and play music
  • and bring a brood of children into this world
  • with neither grandmother around.
  • This, then, is what you all want
  • for our romance, right?
  • I have considered elopement, really.
  • Elopement
  • is no more than an unexpected disappearance
  • from family and friends.
  • See, how can the two of us do any better?
  • One will hang oneself,
  • the other will leap into the well,
  • not a trace of to be found,
  • all very neat and tidy.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 7

11朵玫瑰

  • 伊有喜

  • 有一朵开始凋谢
  • 另一朵振翅欲飞
  • 还有三朵含苞
  • 余下的
  • 不见动静
  • 我换水
  • 刚开始的时候
  • 要勤快些
  • 现在
  • 它们对水的需求
  • 似乎淡了
  • 前天换的水
  • 一点点
  • 都不见少

  • 焦仲卿自白
  • 说吧 说我傻
  • 说我笨说我不知道私奔吧
  • 我并不是没想到
  • 私奔
  • 我总要带上牙刷吧
  • 牙刷是不能共用的
  • 短裤也是
  • 换洗的衣服总要带几套吧
  • 香皂呢洗头膏呢
  • 我不是来无影去无踪的侠客
  • 白衣飘飘一尘不染
  • 长发飘飘不沾灰尘
  • 你看到过侠客的油盐酱醋吗?
  • 你看到过侠客洗脚和如厕吗?
  • 我无非是个普通人
  • 所以总得让我带上
  • 锅碗瓢盆
  • 抹布洗洁净
  • 擦脚布和手纸吧
  • 她可是天生的一双小脚啊
  • 纤纤作细步
  • 奔跑是不可能的
  • 我背着她是不可能的
  • 要不就用马车拉着
  • 顺便搭上棉絮棉被
  • 两袋香米 驱蚊片
  • 文房四宝和她陪嫁过来的箜篌
  • 我还想捎上她织布用的机子
  • 在某个黑漆漆的晚上
  • 悄悄出走
  • 到一个全新的地方
  • 我当私塾先生
  • 她织布弹琴
  • 生一堆小孩
  • 没有外婆和奶奶
  • 这就是你们要的
  • 我们的浪漫吧
  • 我想过私奔 真的
  • 私奔
  • 无非就是在熟人中间
  • 突然消失吧
  • 瞧我俩做的多么好
  • 一个跳水
  • 一个上吊
  • 一下子消失得
  • 干干净净

My Cousin from the West End

  • by Yuan Shiping

  • I called her my temptress cousin,
  • my tall and slender cousin.
  • She quit school right after junior high
  • and always called a tangerine a dangerine;
  • any objection would only meet with
  • her rolling eyes.
  • Since turning sixteen, she was enshrouded
  • in sheer beauty; beauty was her only costume.
  • To the widower Mr. Wang at the garage and his type,
  • all beautiful women were nude; thus,
  • a sea of erotic waves rushed up the west-end streets.
  • It might be hard for someone to see into the mind
  • of a teenage girl at the end of the century
  • when she walked down with a tattoo and a nose ring,
  • but the truth is that a monk's robe does not know
  • when the monk meditates into a trance.
  • Ah, to a wild flower, perfume is such a remote thing.
  • My cousin’s story ended abruptly
  • in a suburb of Beijing. She ran into a truck
  • when dodging a football
  • kicked around by children playing on the street.
  • She died a virgin.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

西单表妹

  • 袁诗萍(施施然)

  • 表妹是妖精的表妹
  • 表妹是高挑儿的表妹
  • 表妹是初中毕业
  • 管“橙子”叫“凳子”
  • (你胆敢指出其中的错误
  • 她便拿白眼球瞪你)的表妹
  • 从16岁开始,美,就将表妹
  • 遮蔽,成了她唯一的外衣——
  • 在修车铺王鳏夫的眼中
  • 美女都是裸体的。西城区的胡同
  • 曾荡起一个时代的性欲
  • 人们其实并不了解
  • 二十世纪末
  • 一个纹身、穿鼻环的街头少女
  • 正如袈裟不了解僧侣
  • 何时入定。野花不了解香水
  • 表妹的故事终止于一场意外
  • 在昌平,为了避开马路上踢足球的
  • 儿童,她和一辆卡车迎面相遇
  • 死的时候还是处女




The Dani Tribe

  • by Zhai Wenxi

  • Deep in the rainforest in Grand Gully live the Dani warriors,
  • ferocious hunters of eagles and leopards.
  • Crowned with egret feathers, boar tusks in the nose, leopard spots all over the body,
  • the Dani warriors arm themselves with poisoned spears, bows and arrows,
  • ready to pounce at the wind like wolves at a deer.
  • In the thatched hut, as my eyes follow the dance of the Dani tribe,
  • forces of life and death start their battle in my heart—
  • wriggling buttocks, crowded whistles, breathless drumbeats, a wave of spears, and animal calls.
  • The Dani people hold hunting rituals and make offerings to their ancestors.
  • One of the fearless Dani men is dying tonight, and
  • his wife will raise a stone axe to cut off a finger of her own,
  • and smear black hibiscus juice on the face.
  • For her remaining years,
  • she will continue to wither until wizen like her naked breasts.

  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 8

达尼人部落

  • 翟文熙

  • 在大溪谷和雨林深处,达尼人
  • 是鹰、猎豹和嗜血的勇士
  • 头戴鹭鸶羽毛,脸挂野猪獠牙,身涂豹纹。达尼人
  • 手执淬毒的长矛或弓箭,像狼群一样扑向丛林中的风吹草动
  • 一秒钟内,我血管里奔跑的麋鹿被杀死
  • 在蘑菇一样的茅草房,我的内心,死与生
  • 开始跟着达尼人的舞姿挣扎。扭动的光屁股
  • 拥挤的口哨、短促的鼓点、挥舞的长矛,模仿野兽的呼叫声
  • 达尼人,把原始的盛典献给死去的猎物和祖先
  • 像豹子一样勇猛的达尼族男人,他们之中的一个将在今夜死去
  • 他的女人,举起石斧,砍下一节手指
  • 脸上涂上黄木槿树根的黑汁,剩下的余生
  • 像她裸露的乳房一样干瘪,萎缩。

Gaze

  • by Zhang Fanxiu

  • The companion planting of sunflower and millet is quite interesting,
  • but very common in the plain of western Liaoning.
  • Oh, not unlike a wood cutter waiting on a small seamstress,
  • he must have been amazed.
  • I can’t really defend that tomfool though;
  • his divine image didn't do him much good.
  • How does he gaze at her?
  • The millet looks tattered and disheveled.
  • Devilish tramps,
  • they have snuck into these rolling hills.
  • — It is hard to be content with what one already has.
  • These devils know God’s ambition. Both have lost their edges,
  • divided, neither is much to look at.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

凝 视

  • 张凡修

  • 向日葵与黍子套种怪有趣的
  • 这在辽西极常见
  • 哦,劈柴喂马的伺候穿针引线的
  • 肯定有异样的凝视
  • 我终究不能替那个脖子上吊着勺子的家伙辩解
  • 他空有神的面具
  • 该怎样凝视,黍子逶迤,披头散发
  • 这群女鬼
  • 已先一步藏身于丘陵
  • ——吃着碗里的惦记锅里的
  • 女鬼太熟悉神的野心。两人都削去了自己的肩膀
  • 没了依托,则谁也不能,用来凝视

If at all Possible

  • by Zhang Fanxiu

  • “A shack is worth a fortune.” That is my narrow perspective
  • before these small housewares.
  • As trifling as they are, seeming invisible, like nothing,
  • they have upheld, maintained, and persevered us.
  • All the more unwilling to leave this old house,
  • all the more not wanting to abandon an earthen jar or a pitcher.
  • The iron pan can’t be left behind. I moved it only a few inches
  • and startled the ashes.
  • The remains of the old flames are hidden but still scorching hot.
  • I may try a flashback, or turn around, but this pot
  • won’t survive being turned upside down.
  • One family, each of us a pair of hands.
  • If at all possible, our hands will raise a new homeland,
  • and I still wish, and hope to have these citizens:
  • my wife, sons, daughters-in-law, grandsons, granddaughters,
  • great-grandsons, great-granddaughters.
  • It looks as if this is possible.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Michael Soper

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 6

容 若

  • 张凡修

  • “破家值万贯”。当我的视野只狭窄到
  • 眼前这些鸡毛蒜皮的小家当
  • 那些容量那些容忍那些容纳
  • 若隐,若无
  • 越发不愿搬离,这所老房子
  • 越发不想扔下,一只坛子,一只罐子
  • 必须要带走的铁锅,挪移时
  • 惊扰了灰烬
  • 残存的几粒火,隐秘,灼热
  • 试图倒叙,试图转身。而锅
  • 绝不可扣过来——
  • 一家人,每人一双手。容若,捧着一个,新的祖国
  • 我还想,仍拥有这些人民:
  • 老伴,儿子,儿媳,孙子,孙女,重孙子,重孙女
  • 如若,容许。

A Pair of Chopsticks

  • by Zhang Shaobao

  • In my childhood, my immaculate mother
  • would set wooden chopsticks
  • around the table, with hot steams rising from
  • a coarse meal. That was the simple happiness
  • in a farmer’s house.
  • My sister got married, leaving
  • one fewer pair of chopsticks on the table.
  • Later I pledge my troth, and
  • chopsticks were added, a pair more.
  • The way chopsticks were set around a table
  • stood for the everyday bliss in the family.
  • Later, Mother passed away;
  • a pair of chopsticks were removed.
  • The happiness around the dining table
  • is now something from the past.
  • Nowadays the siblings are like
  • branches of an old tree growing apart.
  • Lonely chopsticks are set
  • a world apart.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

一双筷子

  • 张少保

  • 小时候,干净的母亲
  • 一人一双,木筷子
  • 围坐,热气腾腾的
  • 粗米淡饭,这是一个农家
  • 朴素的幸福
  • 姐姐出嫁了
  • 筷子少了,一双
  • 我,娶妻了
  • 筷子,又多了,一双
  • 筷子的围坐
  • 是一个,家族简单的
  • 快乐与满足
  • 而今,母亲已经故去
  • 筷子,少了一双
  • 围坐一起的幸福
  • 成为,过去
  • 姊妹们,如同
  • 树大分枝
  • 筷子们,索然寡味的,
  • 天各一方

Emptiness

  • by Zhang Zhanyuan

  • On New Year's Eve, three bright flames
  • brought the neighborhood to a boil.
  • Extravagant light, sizzling like a bomb fuse,
  • pierced our windows with loud merriment.
  • Overnight the howling wind left behind snowdrifts,
  • making new walls to meander down the street,
  • with one opening to Zhang’s house,
  • one opening to Wang’s house,
  • and one with an arched gate and swinging bridge to the Lee’s.
  • These are three prosperous households, all highly regarded.
  • Zhang is the boss at Paradise Night Club;
  • Wang is the loan shark at the gambling den;
  • and Lee is the weather bureau chief, also in charge of public safety.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang


  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

空洞

  • 张占元

  • 除夕,三家焰火
  • 就煮沸了一个小区,
  • 绚光刺眼,炸雷揪心,
  • 门窗挡不住尖利的喧嚣。
  • 一夜风号,雪屑铺地,
  • 长街上堆码起空洞的城墙,
  • 张家一个垛口,
  • 王家一个垛口,
  • 李家,是一座带吊桥的拱门。
  • 三家富贵,望族名流,
  • 张,《天堂》夜总会的老板,
  • 王,设赌局放贷的庄家,
  • 李,分管治安的气象局长。

Remodeling

  • by Zhang Zhanyuan

  • Let me extract colors from the four seasons,
  • starting with the first day of spring until winter solstice:
  • green from spring wheat, red from wolfberry,
  • yellow from golden rice, and purple from sweet eggplant.
  • I am now too old to climb a three-foot wall,
  • and age spots snuck up overnight to embarrass me,
  • but today I shall remodel
  • and adorn myself with a rainbow.
  • My heart opens up to let in a touch of green,
  • which will soon turn into a spring field
  • for galloping horses, flowers and butterflies
  • while a herd of clouds jostle in the blue blustery sky.
  • Then I will add red to my blood
  • so it will turn passionately into fiery azaleas
  • that roll out like a banner over the hill,
  • where crickets sing under a radiant sky.
  • I will have a handsome plaid shirt made
  • of yellow, purple, and white—
  • yellow for rapeseed flower,
  • purple for grape juice from Turan,
  • and white for virgin snow.
  • The collar will be bamboo green
  • and the flowing sleeves rosy clouds.
  • Wind, rain, thunder and lightning,
  • the storm has completely recharged me,
  • thus I dance like a crane in the sky
  • crisp and fresh like mountain dew.
  • Who’s hinting at sixty bygone years?
  • Oh, no, fairer to say a tree of thirty rings!
  • Translated by Meifu Wang

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 2

装修

  • 张占元

  • 榨汁,用四季,
  • 从立春到大寒,
  • 淬取麦苗的绿,杞果的红,
  • 稻菽的黄,还有甜茄的紫。
  • 我老了,不能越过三尺矮墙,
  • 半夜里偷袭成功的老年斑让人蒙羞,
  • 我要重新装修自己,
  • 就用这自然的七彩,
  • 一抹碧绿铺进心底,
  • 摊开一片年轻的草原,
  • 蓝天下风牧白云,
  • 骏马驰骋,蹄花引蝶。

  • 把红色注入血液,
  • 连同蝈蝈的重唱,
  • 映山红开成旗帜,
  • 霞裹春山。
  • 用黄和紫,用白,
  • 缝一件漂亮的格子衫,
  • 一格罗平菜花,
  • 两格吐鲁番葡萄,
  • 三格长白素雪,
  • 领饰川南竹韵,
  • 袖缀五岳丹霞。
  • 我身上,
  • 充盈了四季的风雨雷电,
  • 鹤舞云溪,千峰滴翠,
  • 六十岁吗?
  • 我只有三十个年轮!

Visiting the Plum Tree on a Snowy Night

  • by Zhang Zuogeng

  • The maiden I intend to visit stays behind the doors of her boudoir.
  • Wintersweet is her name.
  • She used the first snow to nourish her body and soul,
  • let the second raise her tender love,
  • and when the third snowfall arrived,
  • she burst gracefully into bloom.
  • It's as if the snowy night was her premeditated design—
  • a white conspiracy to blot out the sky
  • and cover up the earth.
  • The snowy night was needed for her narrative.
  • Amid the sustained snow, she gave the tree a noble touch
  • and decorated it with her pure affection.
  • O, obscure revelation, O, shimmering flames,
  • how you penetrate the enigmatic snowy night!
  • I seem to have come as the belated fourth snow.
  • I float down from the sky with the sole purpose
  • of visiting the plum tree.
  • Translated by Meifu Wang and Huang Hongqi

  • from 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 1

雪夜访梅

  • 张作梗

  • 我所要探访的女子深藏闺中
  • 她叫梅
  • 她靠第一场雪滋补身子
  • 靠第二场雪喂养爱情
  • 第三场雪
  • 她妩媚地开了
  • 雪夜仿佛是她蓄谋已久的
  • 阴谋。白色的阴谋
  • 铺天盖地的阴谋
  • 她通过雪夜叙说自己
  • 通过雪夜,把一缕高洁的
  • 情感,缀上枝头
  • 哦,幽暗的谜底,幽暗的火
  • 当你把谜一样的雪夜说破
  • 我仿佛成了迟到的第四场雪
  • 雪夜访梅,是我从天而降的
  • 惟一缘由