Four Poems by Xiao Kaiyu
translated by Christopher Lupke
Introduction by Christopher Lupke
Xiao Kaiyu (蕭開愚) is one of the most distinguished and challenging poets writing in China today. He published his first poems in the late-1980s and was particularly prolific during the 1990s, part of a group of poets who were producing work more dense and difficult than had been seen in China in several decades. He was educated in Chinese medicine and lived for several years in Germany before taking up his current position as Professor of Chinese at Henan University. He maintains a deep interest in avant-garde Chinese art and has written criticism on art as well as curated art shows.
秋天
追求美感的人啊，如此急切
收回動聽的話語。
縮小了一些的嘴巴緊閉，
和鋪上霜的早晨一樣白。
追求你的人跑步來到這裡
清爽的晚風裡。滿盈的倉庫
裝着黃色的火藥，也步爆炸。
原來是那些穀粒不會爆炸。
你那金絲做成的薄衣裳
想一想啊，女妖的禮服裡的玉。
難言的軟弱，更是難言的寒冷。
越收斂卻越是空曠。
你飛起來，像一隻白色的鳥兒。
要是飛起來多好，回旋，私語。
Autumn (1989)
Ah, one in search of beauty is in such a rush
to repossess the flattering word.
The mouth that is shrunk a bit is tightly closed,
as white as daybreak sheathed in frost.
The one in search of you runs here
in the cool evening breeze. The teeming warehouse
filled with yellow gunpowder, undetonated.
It turns out the golden grain couldn’t blow.
Your sheer clothes of golden thread,
come to think of it, the jade of a witch’s ceremonial gown.
An indescribable frailty, an even more ineffable chill.
What is more restrained is all the more vast.
You take flight, like a white bird.
All the better if you fly, circling, in a whisper.
悼亡詩
我要求這樣一位主，他比血腥
來得早，就像一架廢棄的收割機
阻塞在路口上。他少於說話。
開口就給人們帶來新的方向。
答應善良的請求，彌爾頓
呼籲過：“主啊，復仇吧！”
我要求他像燒焦的青年那樣
受難的人能夠請求到力量。
他突然出現在握刀者身上
我不會驚訝，把黎明的光亮
還給早晨，是他的本份。
已經到了主拯救自己的時候了，
讓虔敬的東方人回到家園
在個人思想裡記起無上的所在。
A Dirge (1990)
I asked for this kind of leader, he arrived
before the stench of blood, like a cast-off reaper
jammed in the middle of the road. He was short on words.
One utterance sent the people in a new direction.
In answering a well-intentioned query, Milton
declared: “Oh Leader, vengeance!”
I asked him to emulate the scorched youths who
suffered so he could get the power they craved.
He suddenly appeared by one who gripped a knife.
I couldn’t be frightened. Return dawn’s radiance
to the morning, that was his calling.
Now is the time when the leader saves himself,
allowing the reverential East Asians to return home
with each alone recalling where the supreme one resides.
雨中作
有許多奇蹟我們看見。
月亮像迅逝的閃電，
照亮江中魚和藻類。
岸上，鳥兒落下飛起，
搬運細木和泥土。
新鮮的空氣，
生命和死亡，
圍繞着我們。
Done in the Rain (1986)
There are so many wonders that we’ve seen.
The moon seems like a flash of lightening,
shining down on the fish and algae in the river.
On the bank, birds alight and take flight,
toting slender branches and mud.
The fresh air,
life and death,
surround us.
宿命論者
目光閃閃的人
紛紛去找瞎子問路
你把手伸給他
他那麼平平靜靜地摸一下
你一輩子地事情他就知道了
他隨便告訴你一些甚麼
愛情 財運 升官 摔死
都很真實
要麼你轉身走去不留下一枚硬幣
他說你走吧
你走不出你的掌紋
The Fatalist (1985)
People with a sparkle in the eye
always ask the blind man the way.
You reach your hand out to him.
He touches it a moment, ever so placidly,
and instantly knows your whole life story,
casually tossing you a few tidbits
love fortune a promotion a plunge to death.
All very plausible.
You could turn and leave without so much as a dime
He says go ahead
but you cannot evade the lines on your palm.
Chistopher Lupke (Ph. D., Cornell University) is Professor of Chinese at Washington State University where he is coordinator of Chinese. He has published edited volumes on the notion of ming (command, allotment, fate) in Chinese culture and on contemporary Chinese poetry, and his book on the Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien is forthcoming from Cambria Press.
