21st Century Chinese Poetry

Ordinarily it's the fortune tellers who are eager to engage.
One of them staked out the underpass to the train station.
He said, “oh, come, wait, look at your face, let me tell you about...”
Tell her about what? Fate? Money, love, luck, career, health?
Was the “telling” meant to map an escape route from misfortunes,
from one’s demons, the decisions made and not made?
That particular afternoon the fortune teller pointed out a few milestones,
fat years and lean years, some past, some still to come.
“Oh, but that was the year my daughter was born.”
“It had nothing to do with your daughter,” he replied.
They say fortune-tellers are masters of statistics,
using the same method as facial recognition, but leaning more on intuition.
That afternoon, when she sat before the monk, south of eastern Mongolia's grassland,
under the white and vermillion Tibetan-Buddhist monastery,
it felt less tentative than science.
Her travel companion was displeased, muttering
words such as scam, fools, weak-minded, and so on —
to the daughter of an impoverished postwar soldier,
every expense had to have a tangible purpose,
had to fit in with logic.
Towards the end of the day, they took the bus to return to the city
— so slow-moving was the bus that they wondered if the driver was paid by per passenger,
unwilling to miss the teenager dashing out from the alley
in a glorious retro-metrosexual outfit,
or the grannie with a grocery bag in her saggy arm,
or the foreign trio in black Gore-Tex, map in hand, trying to plot their next move.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

與算命先生相對而坐

王美富

通常算命先生是比較主動的一方。
還有一個常常守在火車站的地下道。
那天他衝著她說：「哦，等等，過來，你的臉型，啊，請聽我說……」
要告訴她什麼？不就是命運？不就是錢財、愛情、事業和健康？
說是算命，不就是告誡如何擺脫厄運？
或是擺脫內心的掙扎，來到岔路口不得不做選擇（有的人就愛一拖再拖）？
那天下午，算命先生為她指出生命中的關卡，
豐年，荒年，過去與未來。
「哦，可是，那是我女兒出生那年。」
「這和你女兒沒有關係，」他回答。
人們說算命先生其實是統計學大師，
用的方法與人工智慧的臉部識別類似，但更憑直覺一些。
那天下午，在蒙古草原的東南角，在一座朱白相間的藏傳佛寺的高牆下，
她與算命的相對而坐，
雖說僧侶是帶著她摸石頭過河，卻比科學家更有自信。
她的旅伴很不開心，哼哼唧唧地嘀咕著，
說什麼傻瓜，迷信，騙局，弱智，等等。
戰後士兵人家的女兒，從她的觀點，每筆開銷都必須有實際用途，
必須符合邏輯。
時近傍晚，她們一起搭車返回城市，
公車慢吞吞地走著，以至於她們開始猜測：也許司機的工資是按人計酬的，
因此不想錯過那個從巷裡衝出來的少年——穿著幾年前時髦過的貼身男裝——
還有那個手臂鬆軟，拎著購物袋的老奶奶，
還有三個老外，一身新款防風防水黑外套、抓著地圖，在討論下一段旅程。

AN IMPERFECT HOUSE

by Meifu Wang

Not all houses are perfect,
some come with ad-hoc apparatus,
for example a log ladder in a two-story cob home;
some are improvised sanctums, like an igloo;
some are relics, valued only for sentiments.
Once I stayed in a house
that had rigged a wired net to act as a lift.
I was terrified after just one ride,
shaken like a bluefin tuna hoisted over open sea
or an acrobat in a glass cage at the carnival.
Not all houses are castles,
not all manors come with a chapel for prayers,
but oftentimes there are children and animals around
that more than make up for
the house's imperfection.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

不完美的房子

王美富

並非所有的房子都很完美，
有的就是將就將就，臨時拼湊出來的簡單建築，
比如土坯樓房裡瘦長的獨木梯，
利用老松或杉樹的樹幹鋸出來的一節；
有的是緊急避難所，如愛斯基摩人的冰屋；
還有的非常破舊，像古代遺址，卻充滿回憶
我去過的一戶人家，
他們把鐵籠簡單處理，做成臨時升降梯。
我僅僅乘坐一次，就嚇得臉色發白，
有鮪魚被撈出海面、吊在半空的心悸，
也有的像馬戲團的雜技演員，高懸在玻璃球裡。
並非所有的房子都是城堡，
並非所有的莊園都有清淨的誦經堂，
即便如此，附近常有小孩和小動物追逐玩耍，
足足彌補了房屋的缺陷。

WATER

by Meifu Wang

Once upon a time I saw a salt merchant sitting by her donkey cart.
She and her donkey had travelled far and waited long to enter the monastery,
but the monks’ prayers went on even longer.
By mid-morning the little monks’ clogs began to clatter behind the temple walls,
and soon the great gates opened.
The donkey finally unlocked her knees and entered the holy ground,
carrying life-saving salt, harvested from an inland sea
a few hills away.
The monastery sat on scrubland, hemmed in by bald mountains
south of the windblown Silk Road. A sleek airport was just been built
to funnel in modern visitors, offering perks like thirty free minutes on the phone.
I used one minute to call you to say goodbye.
Earlier that day, we had walked up a concrete bridge over the churning Yellow River.
At the top of its curve, you spoke of your mom and dad, picturing them
putting one foot outside the front door, eyes lifted, hoping for rain.
Their sod house stood north of the great Yellow River,
though your ancestors had chosen the desert as home, to elude the warlords.
Settlers everywhere recount their love affairs with water.
There are Fountain of Youth, Eternal Spring, Rose Water, Water of Venus, amongst others,
but of all men's intimacies with water, none is sweeter
than an oasis in the desert.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

水

王美富

有一次，我看見一個女鹽商倚著驢馬車坐著。
她和她的驢子千里迢迢來到寺院門口，等了許久，
但僧侶們誦唸的經書更長。
九點左右，小和尚們的木屐在寺院的牆腳響起，
不久，大殿的門就開了。
驢子終於鬆開膝蓋，走進聖地，交出生命之鹽。
這一車鹽來自某個古老的內陸海。
寺院坐落在禿山環繞的荒地，
絲綢之路偏南。一座嶄新的機場最近才落成，
為方便外地遊客，還提供大家三十分鐘的免費通話。
我用一分鐘給你打了電話，與你告別。
那天中午，我們走上橫跨黃河的水泥橋，河水湍急。
在拱橋頂點，你説說起你的父母，
想像他們在家門口，仰望蒼穹，期盼雨水。
他們的土屋在雄偉的黃河北岸，
但你的祖先為了避開土皇帝，選擇了荒漠做為家園。
世界各地，大家對水有不同的浪漫情懷，
還有所謂的青春之泉，長生泉，玫瑰水，金星之水，等等，
然歷代以來人類與水的親密關係裡，沒有一個比得上
沙漠裡的綠洲。

SEEMS LIKE LOVE

by Meifu Wang

The wind redoubled, rousing the sea and shaking the earth.
At dawn, I opened the door to a dew-glazed world
only to be stunned by the sight of a tree lying on its side.
He used to stand tall in the wind with raffish hair;
I was a child then, inexperienced with love,
but couldn't help but be mesmerized by his stellar look.
The unhurried sun filtered through the clouds
and lit up every part of him
— viridian leaves, tony body, svelte ankles and feet.
It awakened in me a quiet sorrow.
I was a child then, inexperienced with death,
but the breathlessness of the tree grieved my heart.
Since then, on dark nights,
if I happen to think of Shakespeare,
or reminisce about my mom and dad, or ponder what comes after me,
a heartache rises in the shape of a tree
— infernal wind, crepuscular light, a profile in white —
it seems like love, in Michelangelo's heart.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

仿佛爱情

王美富

狂風吹，颱風吹，吹出黑色天幕，
激起巨浪，鞭打溫馴的大地。
一早起來，我推開木門，看見晨曦裡側躺的大樹。
從前的他挺立於小土丘上，散髮隨風飄揚。
少年的我對愛情一無所知，
卻總在上學的路上為他心曠神怡。
早晨的陽光穿透悠遊的薄雲，
照出他一身的皎潔：
幽雅的枝葉，倜傥的胴體，玉潔的脚踝。
少年的我對死亡一無所知，
然他的體態牽動我的心，我看著他，滿懷離情。
死亡的印象從此縈繞不去。有時夜幕低沉，
我偶然想起莎士比亞，或緬懷雙親，或預見未來，
心海便再一次颳起巨浪，
明媚的晨曦，皎潔的大樹，雪白的腳跟，
彷彿愛情，在米開朗基羅的心裡。

LONDON BLUES ( Fragment from Monody )

by Meifu Wang

Now that you are in the sky,
all things all around emanate a blue light
as if steeped in your starlight.
When I was a child by the pond, water lilies’ leaves
looked blue too, under dragonflies’ gossamer wings,
a similar kind of magic. No wonder
tonight's River Thames flows like a dream,
hypnotising the whirling mists and the bridge lights.
A sapphire glow reigns over the stone castle
and the giddy commercial spires nearby.
We used to stroll Shad Thames’ cobbled lanes
between erstwhile cloisters of tea and spices
down to London Bridge Station, where the sallow pipe organ
would fill the grand foyer with her dulcet rapture
when coaxed by some fortuitous, wandering lover.
Your ambling gait lent the river a lightness,
while phantom docks lay abreast the ocean's heartbeat,
and the tide surged through St Saviour's Bridge
into the lost river of Neckinger, where I raise my eyes,
enthralled by the light over the city’s gamesome skyline.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

倫敦藍調 (選自驪歌）

王美富

自從你離開人間，
我身邊的一切似乎都蒙上一層薄藍，
彷彿都沉浸在你的星光裡。
兒時，在池塘邊，睡蓮的綠葉
在蜻蜓的薄翼下也呈現藍色，
有相似的魅力。也許正因如此，
今晚的泰晤士河如夢似幻，
飛騰的薄霧，橋墩的燈火都如夢似幻。
藍光籠罩著古老的城堡，
也罩著倜儻的商業大樓，看起來十分浪漫。
我們最愛泰晤士河畔，走進它蜿蜒的磚石街巷，
穿過由香料茶葉的老糧倉改建的樓房，
一下就到了倫敦大橋火車站。車站的大廳，
不時有琴手造訪，黃銅色的管風琴
便發出狂喜之音，激盪旅人的心。
你輕快的腳步為這條永恆的河流增添一抹神秘，
老碼頭貼著大海的胸脯，傾聽它的心跳，
潮水奔湧，流過聖主橋，流進不復當年勇的
內金格河。在橋邊，我抬頭
仰望，見藍光灑落在倫敦充滿挑逗性的天際線。

WILDWOODS ( Fragment from Monody )

by Meifu Wang

We walked into the wildwoods
to listen to their susurration,
and on somnolent autumn days
we went too,
to soak up their golden mood.
Transfixed by their kaleidoscopic veins
and the birds' cheerful play, I thought
eternity had come to rest on my shoulder.
Still, amidst all permutations of beauty,
your spirit outshone even the most unfathomable.
Once again we enter the wildwoods —
my same old self, with you on my mind.
By a camellia tree blooming snowy-white,
I watch a flock of goldfinches flying up and down,
and see you in their company.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

野林 (選自驪歌）

王美富

盛夏的野林婀娜多姿，
走，咱們一起去，看它們婆娑起舞。
在思遠的秋季，我們也去，
融入它金色的氣息裡。
野林的風姿千變萬化，
令人心醉神迷，耳邊還常有鳥兒啁啾，
我恍然以為永恆已降臨人間，在耳畔棲息。
然而，儘管身邊有數不盡的出奇美景，
沒有哪一個比得上你的靈性。
今天，我们又一起回到野林 —
還是那個老我，還有我心上的你。
林子裡有一棵山茶树，沾滿晶瑩的露水，
一朵朵雪白的茶花，看也看不盡。
我正讚嘆，瞬間有金雀來到樹旁圍舞，
我一回頭，就看見你
在他們之間，一會兒唱歌，一會兒追逐。

PERFECT DAYS ( Fragment from Monody )

by Meifu Wang

If our days could be perfected by hands on earth,
I have missed the mark.
If love could be redoubled by courage alone,
I would practice it day and night.
But love is a gift,
as you have shown me every day,
made in heaven for my poor spirit,
spoken through the deep wells of your eyes.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

完美的日子 (選自驪歌）

王美富

如果我們能夠用雙手把日子打造完美，
我絕對沒有達到目標。
如果光憑勇氣，就能把愛加厚加深，
我一定日夜耕耘。
然而愛是恩典，
每天醒來，你就把它注入我的生活，
通過你深情的眼神灌溉，
滋潤我心靈貧瘠的土壤。

WHITE CRANE ( Fragment from Monody )

by Meifu Wang

Thinking about your final days,
I ask myself:
Have your feathers grown thinner?
Do your shoulders hang heavier?
Do the fish swim past you faster now?
I dream that you'll always be white
without a speck of dirt on you.
But even heaven is made of more than purity,
no wonder your snowy-white body is melting,
showing a blotch of salt-pink on your chest.
Gone now, the wispy curls on your wingtips.
Still, on this October day, your eyes are mist free,
like the open sky in the last days
of an ideal autumn.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

白鶴 (選自驪歌）

王美富

進入生命最後的一段旅程，
我想請問：
你是否感覺羽毛日漸稀疏？
是否感覺翅膀日益沉重？
眼前的魚兒是否游得更快？
我一直以為你的一生必是潔白無瑕，
然而仔細想想，
即使天堂也不是純淨的雲彩堆砌出來的，
難怪你的白色也在融化，
胸膛已經出現一抹粉紅色的鹽漬，
尾翼也不再縴卷裊繞。
然而，就在今天，十月的某一天，
你的眼神依然明澈如鏡，
如深秋進入初冬之前的
那種萬里晴空。

OCEAN CROSSING ( Fragment from Monody )

by Meifu Wang

Rock and roll, watch the mad waves romp,
throwing salt and sleet.
Let us step up and play a game with them.
Rock and roll, hear the mad waves roar.
Is the sea dragon battling Hades' hound?
O let them duke it out.
Rock and roll, who knows why the sea
is baring white teeth? Try as he may,
he won't coax a whimper from my sorrow.
Rock and roll, tell me why the sea is howling.
My deep longing is ballast enough —
I'll sail on even as the sun abandons the sky.
Rock and roll, watch the mad waves storm.
I know they are testing my everlasting love for you.

October 2024, Crossing Sound of Mull

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

越洋 (選自驪歌）

王美富

啊，看那狂風巨浪，
拋灑粗鹽和冰雹，瘋了似的。
啊，不怕，咱們和它們較一較勁。
翻啊，滾啊，看那巨浪拳打腳踢。
是海龍王和閻王的看門狗打起來了？
哦，就讓它們決一死戰吧。
呼啊，吼啊，大海為何張牙舞爪？
然而無論他怎麼嘗試，
我不會吐露心事，不出一聲嗚咽。
唉呀，大海為何咆哮，為何與我作對。
他豈不知我有深深的思念做壓艙石，
即使太陽西下，我也不會放棄航行。
來吧，看那狂風巨浪，在向誰挑戰？
啊，是大海在考驗人間有無永恆的愛。

2024年10月，橫渡蘇格蘭馬爾海峽

EQUINOX MOON

by Meifu Wang

The cool, hyaline sea
laces the seal pups' splendid chins,
three of them lolling near the shore.
The sea doesn't feel cold,
but it puts on a pearl-grey robe
once the sun goes home.
O silvern shore, O gentle wind,
O majestic beasts, how lovely you look
under the equinox moon.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

春分月夜

王美富

沁涼的海水
浣洗著小海豹的下巴，
三隻懶洋洋地在岸邊游著。
海水其實不冷，
然而太陽一下山，
它便換上灰藍色的外套。
哦，銀色海岸，哦，徐徐微風，
無邪的野獸，春分月夜之下，
你們有說不完的可愛。

POTTER CREEK TRAIL

by Meifu Wang

This forest revives itself in the falling of leaves.
The palms of devil’s club web and shrivel,
and tall grasses languish under the weight of dew.
Having shed its gaudy youth, the forest is afresh again:
all is grayish-brown, every thin rib exposed.
The hillside is crusted with overnight frost.
One step up on the humus, signs of life and death intermingle,
yet the brilliance of the woods is fading
as summer gives way to glorious autumn:
somber is its tone, and what lovely duskiness!
Fallen leaves crisscross the sun's path.
Weary reedgrass leans against thorny roses,
whose pink flowers yield only waterless fruit,
untouched by squirrels, hares, magpies, and wolves —
though there are cranberries, luminous and sweet.
Between the season of birth and the season of sleep,
words enter the woods on the shoulders of the wind.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

山林小道*

王美富

秋葉落光之後，樹林彷彿復活了。
凋零的刺五加撐著乾癟的闊葉，
狐尾草沾了一身露水，不再挺拔。
艷麗的青春不再，樹林煥然一新：
幽深的色調裡，凸顯一根根肋骨。
小土坡披著昨夜的霜，其下的
腐植土，滿目生死交織的跡象，
啊，森林的蒼勁不再，
夏日遜位，秋日登台：
秋色如此穩健，暗淡的色調如此迷人！
落葉小徑如小龍，穿行太陽的軌跡。
兩邊的芒草倚著多刺的野薔薇，薔薇的紅花
早已結成乾果，包藏明年的種子，
松鼠，野兔，喜鵲，野狼都嚐過它們的苦澀。
林子裡剔透的蔓越莓，是酸是甜說不清楚。
在生息與衰亡兩季之間，
神秘的文字穿越林間，隨風飄蕩。
*寫於阿拉斯加

TURNAGAIN ARM

by Meifu Wang

Today's sky has the look of a floating world,
a little paler than glacier blue,
one colour from the top of the sky's arc
down to the glacier-cracked earth below.
I stand at the fjord's edge,
surveying the mountains around me, in search
of a perfect dome — somewhere
I can leave my heart to wander,
to roam its cloisters.
November's rivulets trickle down,
veiling the mountains in white
— the colour of decay —
as they descend from heaven to sea.
Red squirrels rove the frosted earth,
down through the spruces' icy roots,
listening to birds
before the sound of footsteps comes
I follow a trail where berries hang
like cuckoos' blood, frozen mid-drop.
This forest is not cuckoos' home, but I hear their cries
from the depths of my heart.
This year winter doesn't stay. The willows
are already budding catkins, and bohemian waxwings
from who-knows-where are perching high.
The trout lake wears a water lens on ice.
A man swings his ice-chipping axe, madder than ever.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

回頭灣*

王美富

今天的天空恍若一幅浮世繪，
比冰河的藍稍微蒼白，
從天穹之巔到那
冰川切開的大地, 渾然一色。
我佇立於峽灣之畔，
瀏覽四周深奧的群山，尋覓
一座完美的山頭；我渴望放飛心靈，
曠遊其間祕境。
十一月的山泉潺潺而下，
為群山披上白紗，
白色是腐朽的顏色——
來自山之巔，一路狂奔大海。
紅松鼠遊竄於霜凍的大地，
滑下雲杉冰封的腳趾之間，
最先聽見的是鳥兒輕拍羽翼，
然後是人類的腳步聲。
我沿著小徑走著，見漿果垂掛枝頭，
如布穀泣血，凝於墜落瞬間。
此林非杜鵑之鄉，但我聽見
他們的哭聲，來自我心深處。
今年的冬天不願久留。柳樹
已然吐出嫩嫩柳絮；太平鳥
不知從何而來，高棲枝頭。
鱒魚流連的湖泊早已結冰，
浮冰上蒙著一面水鏡。
一個大漢高揮鑿冰之斧，
比往日更加猖狂，更加放肆。

* 回頭灣, 也叫迴轉灣或特納根灣，位於阿拉斯加首都，安克拉治的南邊。

HEAVEN AND HELL

by Meifu Wang

Dante drew a sublunar world between fiery Hell and blissful Heaven,
but I only believed in the heroic tales he told —
of a poet and his guide walking through shadowy lands,
not unlike modern explorers in the vast unknown.
But perhaps I was wrong, too simplistic
in dismissing Heaven and Hell as mere abstractions
set against the steady cycles of the solid Earth,
though writers and theologians wrap their depths in mystery.
Today, I no longer mock Heaven and Hell as romance.
Part of me hopes that Heaven holds for some,
and my burning soul might test Purgatory’s fires. For then,
all my loves and hates won't be in vain, and my dreams might find a sphere to call home.