Archive: Modern Chinese Poetry
From Asia Literary Review No. 18, Winter 2010: China
Essay - Modern Chinese Poetry: Insistent Voices, by Zheng Danyi
Poetry translations are by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee, Martin Alexander and Luo Hui.
Misty Poets
北島(1949 - )Bei Dao - Landscape Above Zero
多多(1951 - )Duo Duo - Tonight We Sow
舒婷(1952 - )Shu Ting - A Few Memories
楊煉(1955 - ) Yang Lian - Snow Without Subject (2)
顧城(1956 - 1993)Gu Cheng - One Generation
Transition
翟永明 (1955 - ) Zhai Yongming Mother
柏樺(1956 - )Bai Hua - The Future
New Generation
張棗(1962 - 2010)Zhang Zhao - In the Mirror
陳東東 (1962 - ) Chen Dongdong - Wild Temple
鄭單衣 (1963 - ) Zheng Danyi - Phoenix
Misty Poets
北島(1949 - )Bei Dao - Landscape Above Zero
It was the seagull that taught the song to swim
It was the song that found the first wind’s source
We shared shards of happiness
Entering the home from different directions
It was father who recognised darkness
It was darkness that led us to sudden lightning
The weeping door slammed shut
And echo pursued its cries
It was the pen that bloomed in despair
It was the flower that refused the necessary journey
It was rays of love that awoke
Lighting the landscape above zero
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
多多(1951 - )Duo Duo - Tonight We Sow
Tulips, last days and the ferrying
and bed after bed piled up with seed, nourishes lovers.
Tonight, a piano made of ice plays in time with
the deep thoughts of goldfish
but the dull-witted sea knows only the swell.
Tonight, the wind has more voices
Tonight there is peace and here, no pretence.
Tonight the doors of the church are shut.
Tonight all around us, every bowl stops begging
all the eyes that watched us watch each other now.
We should sing our secrets out behind the clouds
Jesus holds me in your arms tonight.
Tonight is the night of our divorce.
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
舒婷(1952 - )Shu Ting - A Few Memories
A wine cup knocked over
Stone paths float in moonlight
On green grass, pressed down
A lost red mountain flower
Eucalyptus trees turn
Crowded stars kaleidoscope
By the rusty iron anchor
Eyes reflect a dizzy sky
A book raised to block off candlelight
Fingers held gently between lips
In thin crisp silence
Dreams are half-awake
translated by Luo Hui (with Zheng Danyi and Martin Alexander)
楊煉(1955 - ) Yang Lian - Snow Without Subject (2)
The snowfield, covered with the blind. They couldn’t see
the poem that died in the hotel
and the valley breeding terrible sunlight.
They lost their shadows under the same precipice
becoming thin black needles on the sundial in the garden
washing their feet with laughter.
Flowers meticulously etched on a bowl by a dead bird –
drinking from the bright red stream at the picnic.
Noon – the stream secreted by the blind.
They couldn’t see the travellers in the poem lying naked in their hotel beds.
Without having to fall, they were swallowed by the avalanche.
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
(Yang Lian was chosen to represent China at Poetry Parnassus as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. He is one of eight Asia Literary Review poets among the 205 who performed at the South Bank Centre in the last week of June 2012.)
顧城(1956 - 1993)Gu Cheng - One Generation
Black night gave me black eyes
But I use them to search for brightness
translated by Luo Hui
Transition
翟永明 (1955 - ) Zhai Yongming Mother
There are too many places that we
cannot reach and our feet ache.
Mother, you never taught me
in the eager pink of dawn
to drink that age-old sadness.
My heart takes after you alone.
You are so much my mother that I am
the blood that you bled as dawn broke –
surprised into seeing yourself
by the sight of the blood, that was you!
You awoke me to hear the voices of the world.
You gave me birth, and cursed me
with the world’s misfortune as my twin.
For years I’d forgotten the tears of that night.
The light that made you pregnant came
from so far away – and was so suspect –
as it stood between life and death.
The dark was possessed by your eyes.
How heavy the shadows at the soles of your feet!
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
柏樺(1956 - )Bai Hua - The Future
The wanderer has to return
He’s already damaged by loneliness
His unlucky liver is burdened with fish and with pride
Unlucky youth, and the crying of alcohol too!
Oh, must you be angrier still,
and are not your curses enough?
Birds, beasts, flowers, wood, spring, summer, autumn, winter –
all are surprised by this crazy little man.
More red than red, more white than white
More yellow than yellow
He is the corpse of his future.
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
New Generation
張棗(1962 - 2010)Zhang Zhao - In the Mirror
As long as there are thoughts that bring regret
plum blossoms fall:
watching her swim to the other shore, perhaps,
or climbing a pine ladder,
there’s beauty in dangerous things.
Nothing beats watching her return on horseback,
cheeks warm with her shame,
head lowered, answering the Emperor.
A mirror always waits for her.
Let her sit at her usual place in the mirror
look out the window.
As long as there are thoughts that bring regret
plum blossoms fall and cover the southern mountain.
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
陳東東 (1962 - ) Chen Dongdong - Wild Temple
Peace and meditation
Twenty years alone on the empty mountain
An old monk
Acrid pines
He hears people speaking in the temple
A child’s voice
Then a woman’s
Then again the child: a startled cry
Like thin ice, the crescent moon drifts on water
translated by Zheng Danyi, Shirley Lee and Martin Alexander
鄭單衣 (1963 - ) Zheng Danyi - Phoenix
Tonight, my Phoenix is a greedy fox
When she loves me, it feels just like summer
Perfumed five times, her hair is soft and tender
Her small hands delicate as ever
After a few days away, they fascinate me
Here is no home, but the summer breeze is just as cool
Now I see her drinking cold water. Then
She counts the freckles on my neck.
When evening comes, the lanterns look fat. All is before me
But my mind is on salt and a flock of sheep
Oh, how many bead curtains are closing at this moment
And how many deprived hands are fingering a single garment
One night differs from another. But in her room
One breath is familiar with the rest
Like a basketful of pears, with soft-jade core, one
Another, for her I peel the fruits
As she repeats those gentle words
All words are but one. Tonight
Pears roll over our bodies as love
Opens its fiery body, then starts a storm in my heart
translated by Luo Hui
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