AN INTERNATIONAL POETRY JOURNAL IN ENGLISH & CHINESE

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Winter 2017-18Issue 13

Chen Yuhong, born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, graduated from the Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. After many years in Canada, she returned to Taiwan, settling in Taipei. In 2004, for her collection Annotations (《索隱》), the editors of the annual Best Poetry of Taiwan named her Poet of the Year. Following her two recent poetry volumes, Trance (《閃神》) and In Between (《之間》), she received the prestigious 2017 Taiwan United Daily News Grand Prize in Literature. Of her seven poetry books, The Bewitched (《魅》) won Taiwan’s Chinese Writers & Artists Association Medal of Arts. Her work was included in Chiu Ko Publishing’s Taiwan anthology New Poetry by 30 Poets (《新詩30家》). She has also published a volume of essays 2010 Diary: An Oblique Angle of 365° (《2010日記∕365°斜角》). Among her distinguished translations are the poetry volumes The Wild Iris by Louise Glück, Eating Fire by Margaret Atwood, Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy, and the novel La Citadelle de Neige by Matthieu Ricard. A collection of her own poetry, selected and translated into Japanese by Sato Fumiko as I Once Told You (『あなたに告げた』), appeared in 2011. Chen represented Taiwan at the 2014 Nicaragua Poetry Festival, also serving as Beijing’s Renmin University 2015 Poet-in-Residence. She lives in Taipei with her husband and their cat Coconut.

陳育虹。文藻外語學院畢業。祖籍廣東南海,生於台灣高雄市。寄寓加拿大多年後,現定居台北。出版詩集包括2016《閃神》、2011《之間》、2007《魅》、2004《索隱》等七本,及2011散文《2010日記∕365°斜角》;另有譯詩集2017露伊絲·葛綠珂Louise Glück《野鳶尾 The Wild Iris》、2015瑪格麗特·艾特伍Margaret Atwood《吞火 Eating Fire》、2010凱洛·安·達菲Carol Ann Duffy《癡迷 Rapture》,與2009馬修·李卡德Matthieu Ricard成長小說《雪之堡 La Citadelle de Neige》。

2004以《索隱》獲「臺灣詩選年度詩獎」。2007以《魅》獲「中國文藝協會文藝獎章」。2008入選九歌《新詩30家》。2011由佐藤普美子日譯之詩集《我告訴過你》於日本思潮社出版。2014代表臺灣參加尼加拉瓜詩歌節。2015應邀出任北京中國人民大學駐校詩人。2017以《閃神》及《之間》獲「聯合報文學大獎」。

讓雨

讓月亮微汗
讓蟋蟀嗓音壓低像書頁掀動
讓液體落在液體
讓墻讓禁地讓凝固的
裂縫自行遷移讓填補
讓一隻筆寂寞讓落葉的塗鴉
星塵爆讓記憶
讓刪節細節細節細節流線的敘述冰涼
柔滑的讓氾濫讓觸鬚
讓七弦琴飛讓夜的波紋
讓石階讓門讓沉睡的讓召喚
一朵山茶不可能的天堂
你的臉不可能的鑰匙
讓窗子敲打讓藍調
讓燭光讓顫抖沒有保留

 

MAY THE RAIN

May the moon faintly perspire
and the cricket’s voice smother the riffle of pages
May liquid fall to liquid
May the wall restrain,
the hardened cleft shift and fill in
May the pen be forlorn
and the fallen leaves scrawl
May stardust recollect
May the deletions, the details of streaming narrative simmer down
May smooth softness overflow
May the antenna and the lyre fly free
May the night ripple
May the stone steps and the deep-sleeping door summon
the camellia’s impossible paradise
and your face the impossible key
May the window shudder
May the notes be blue
and the candleflame shake unequivocally

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

換季

蟬鳴是一種聲音
雷,雨
心跳和氣喘

床,紗窗和樹葉
的摩擦
是另一種

以及大冠鷲撲翅
飛過
貓的燠熱

不要讓我嗅到
雄蕊雌蕊的費洛蒙

膨脹的花
膨脹的空氣
過於膨脹的嗅覺細胞

過於靠近的你

你說闔攏窗吧
花瓣等著墜落
觀音的額頭在雲裏
白鷺鷥拍岸是風
羽量級

大冠鷲一再調整
貓的耳朵
是誰在蕭邦蕭邦蕭邦
以及達達的雨
猜猜看現在
幾點?

有一種夜
屬於低飛的鷹隼
屬於七里香
謹慎的聽診器也聽不出的
心跳

有一種夜
屬於三十八度的微燒
屬於咳嗽
壓抑
壓抑不住。在夜裏

關燈,而溪流是關不住的
蟬聲關不住
一種夜的連禱文
屬於我們
游移的    熱

你讓我以為這潮濕
是真的,這熱
這花粉帶來的搔癢和涕淚

這紅腫的太陽
風的雀斑雨的皺紋
都是

觸覺。錯覺。
你讓我以為你還在

藍色的
看。

貓以視網網住天空網住
飛過的大冠鷲

鴨跖草從夏天
踱到秋天

雷雨後的藍調

 

CHANGE OF SEASON

1.
The cicada’s one kind of song,
rain, thunder,
breath and heartbeat

The bed, the brush
of leaves against the windowscreen
another

Flying past,
the crested serpent eagle beats its wings
The sullen cat

2.
Best not to smell
these pheromones, stamen and pistil

the surging flowers
the swelling air
overloaded olfactories

too close

3.
Shut the window, you say
Petals soon to drop
The Goddess of Mercy’s forehead’s in the cloud
The pale egret beats upward from the bank
featherweight

The crested serpent eagle tilts
The cat’s ears
Who’s playing Chopin Chopin Chopin
amid raindrops
Guess what time it is
                                  now

4.
A kind of night
belongs to low flying hawks
belongs to orange jessamine,
the cautious heartbeat
no stethoscope can make out

This kind of night
becomes a low fever,
a cough
suppressed
but insuppressible

Turn off the lamp, but not the creek
nor the cicada
This dark litany
is ours,
its swimming heat

5.
You make me think
humidity is real, the heat,
its pollen itch, these tears,

this sun swelled red,
dust flecked wind, wrinkled cords of rain
all

palpable Illusion.
You make me think you’re still here

6.
Azure
gaze

The cat’s retina nets the sky,
the crested serpent eagle

The dewflower spreads
summer to autumn

A thunderstorm, then blue

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

梔子

複沓的花瓣
複沓的香
清晨的泥土的乳白的霧的
露的

金龜子腳趾的
青帶鳳蝶唾液的以及
(像是你身體的)
醞釀著甜酒的夜的褥枕的


從半夢的床崖靠近
貓一樣輕
拿捏不定

複沓的記憶,飽滿
厚實的(啊是你的手掌)
向我
張開

這薄胎瓷
這淺酌的酒器
如何盛裝複沓得就要
溢出的白色賦格

你會來嗎?
(如果說我在這我正在這)
你會聽見嗎?多麼
不確定,像是要碎了

像是束攏的雲就要
失散
樹梢的殘雪
就要融化

那音質分明低弱了
依然迴盪
那顏色(唉如何一種素絹
的潔癖)

分明該崩解了
月暈的二十一重花瓣
終是
二十一重不捨

的圍城,我終是走不出
你張開的
網,複沓的
乳白迷宮

 

CAPE JASMINE

1.
These lapped petals
repeat the scent
of morning, of earth, dew’s
milk-white fog

Scarab’s claws,
spittle of blue triangle butterfly
(as if from your body),
sweet liquors distilled of night,
mattress, pillow

A fragrance creeps
from the bed’s half-dreamt cliff
hesitant
light as a cat

Echoing memory, rich
and weighty (ah your palm)
opening toward me

2.
This eggshell porcelain
this shallow wineware
how can it hold the repeating fugue
about to overbrim

I await you
(I’ll stay if I say so)
Can you hear? How
uncertain, soon to shatter

3.
Like bunched clouds soon
to tear apart,
snow on the treetop
soon to melt

the sound dims
but still echoes,
that color (oh how it resembles white silk’s
fear of defilement)

It’s surely time to close
the moon halo’s twenty-one petals,
its twenty-one layers
lingering

Besieged city, I can’t after all
step from your open web,
its pale labyrinth
its turns

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

Cape Jasmine: A particularly fragrant flowering gardenia originally from subtropical China.

蜻蜓賦格曲

遁走,追逐
平舉翅膀
在湍流的五線譜
他們練習
雙聲部

賦格
高五度低四度
孤單的旋律順勢上下
並行,婉轉對位
成圓弧

主體與插入句
應答
互屬
自在進出
這密接疊置的技巧啊

世界縮小又擴大
張力與高潮
反覆呈現
發展,再現
緩緩停棲在一千顆

水珠的光影
一千個世界
馬賽克拼圖般
不再容許
分析

 

DRAGONFLY FUGUE

This flight hunts
the five-line staff
in homophonic fugue,

a fifth higher, a fourth lower,
each melody rising, falling
in parallel, tactful counterpoint
rounding out a loop

Theme and thread
                   a dialogue:
dominant, subdominant
     passing in and out
strettoes overlapping

The world shrinks and grows,
tensed and released,
revealed, restated,
perched on light and shadow

A thousand waterbeads,
a thousand worlds,
scattered mosaic
we cannot name

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

築巢

有些吹長笛
短笛
哀怨的雙簧管
有些打響板
敲木魚
風鈴
三角鐵
一兩聲低音號
他們各自試探一首
怯生生的
春天
我想他們全都是新手

黃昏黎明
他們在我心裏
複沓
降A大調
升C小調
我聽到顫音
琶音
上升音下滑音
斷奏或跳奏
沒有總譜的
快板慢板
練習曲迴旋曲

混聲交響
這些看不見的
樂器
喜鵲藍鵲
綠繡眼紫嘯鶇
來吧我說
都來吧
燕隼山鷓鴣布穀領角鴞
所有迷鳥留鳥
過境鳥逸鳥
這無人的老部落
我在樹下你們在樹上

 

NEST BUILDING

1.
Some play the flute
some piccolo,
plaintive oboe,
some clack the castanets
tap the wooden fish
wind chime
triangle
one or two blow tuba
each tries a phrase of timid spring
they all sound green

2.
Dusk, dawn
in my heart
repeating
A-flat major
C-sharp minor
thrilled arpeggios
the rise and plummeting glissando
staccato or detached
allegro, adagio
scoreless
rondos and études

3.
Reverberant, symphonic
unseen instruments
magpies common or blue
green white-eye, blue whistling thrush
I invite you all
Eurasian hobby, hill partridge, cuckoo, collared scops owl,
wanderers, residents,
birds in transit, exotics,
this old lived-in colony
I’m under the trees
you’re in them

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

星期天

這是一個閒置的
星期天 不用上教堂
不用買菜
不用澆盆景 花已經枯萎
巴赫已經奏完最後的
變奏 沒有
工人敲門 水泥墻已經砌好
星際大戰又開始上演

這該是原力覺醒的年代 不是
完結篇 天空擁擠如常
沒有天使降臨如雨
多海嘯的海岸線
多棺槨的國界
地鐵會不會再次
槍響 貓在暖爐旁
她雪白的雪一樣的身體會不會融化

 

SUNDAY

Empty Sunday
No need for church
No buying vegetables
No need to water potted plants,
their blooms all withered
Bach’s variations
play out a last note   No workers
at the door   The concrete wall’s complete
Star Wars on again

The Force should awaken
but this is not the final chapter
The sky crowded as ever
No angel descends like rain
This coastline, so many tsunamis
These borders, so many coffins
Will the subway ring once more
with gunshots   By the stove the cat
warms her snowy coat
Will it melt

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

水·蛇

還是滲進來了
平靜無聲似乎無害的水
游進來蛇一樣游近你的腳邊
彷彿一道不確定的光
從門縫窗隙
從清晨五點的薄闇
再怎麼封怎麼鎖都擋不住的
一尾



慢慢迤集漶散以你
不易覺察或故意忽略的曲線
彷彿不到一刻鐘或竟是
整整一生
已經漫過你腳心你的
心溼了大片但也來不及了
風急雨急也只能看著
這滲透這不確定
平靜的光這水一尾



無端地幾乎帶著安撫性從門
從窗從靈魂每一毛細孔
游 進來

 

WATER, SNAKE

In the end it seeped in,
calm, silent water, looking harmless,
creeping like a snake toward your feet,
as unsteady light
sliding beneath a door, past a window,
say the dim light of 5AM,
faint but unstoppable,
a tail
        a
          snake’s
                      tail
slowly winding, insinuant curve
so easily missed or ignored.
How a quarter hour
stretches to a life.
Footsoles soaked,
your heart swamped, it’s too late
despite the hurried wind, insistent rain, you can only behold
this leaching, this uncertainty
of mute light, a tail
                        a
            snake’s
        tail
hypnotic, soothing,
slipping in
past the door,
past the window,
past each pore of the soul.

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

日安·憂鬱

日安,憂鬱
今天天氣多雲偶雨
太陽有可能不再出現
一隻野雁鑽入水心,尋找
自己模糊的臉
北風狂亂舔舐薔薇
敏感的耳垂,這許是
最後一次

示愛,在舌頭凍僵之前
鴉們佔領了防波堤
向潮浪叫喊
啊,啊,日安
憂鬱

紫眼圈的牡蠣從岩石的
縫裏、夢裏
掙扎醒來

太陽露出丁點帽緣
像遲到的孩子,不能確定
該留或者該走
日安,憂鬱
野雁舉翼飛起
扔下多皺紋的影子
任它漂泊
啊,啊,老去

 

GOOD MORNING MELANCHOLY

Good morning melancholy
Cloudy, brief showers,
fleeting sun
A wild goose dives toward water’s heart,
chasing its own blurred face
Raw north wind nips Japanese roses,
tender earlobes, now
may be one last chance

for love before the tongue frosts
Crows line the breakwater
beckoning dark waves
Ah, ah, good morning melancholy

Blue-eyed oysters
yawn in rock clefts
as if waking after dreams

The sun tilts its brim
like a tardy child, unsure
to stay or go
Good morning melancholy
Wild goose wings beat aloft,
their wave-fretted shadow
cast adrift
Ah, Ah, how time rushes out

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

彈撥爾

八分音十六分音三十二分音符
彈撥爾迫切切拍撫你額頭如胡楊低訴
雪落著雪落落了整整三個月
駝鈴搖醒大漠荒涼的思念
你是不停的路我是不移的窗

你愈行愈近卻不往我的方向
我們的時間或許眠夢等待或許在明天
彈撥爾愈行愈遠愈行愈緩
三十二分音十六分音八分音符
我是不移的窗你是不停的路

 

TANBUR

Eighth notes, sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes,
the tanbur’s strokes more urgent on your forehead
than the murmurs of Euphrates poplars.
This falling snow’s been falling three months.
The sway of camel bells wakes the desert’s longing.
You’re an endless path. I’m a steady window.

You’re near but not in my direction.
Some hour may await us, tomorrow or in dreams.
The tanbur travels slow but journeys far.
Thirty-second notes, sixteenth notes, eighth notes.
I’m a steady window. You’re an endless path.

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

Tanbur: A lute-like stringed instrument of ancient derivation, played across Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa.

不忘記

不想忘記海
的顏色
不想忘記海鷗呼喚迫切的呼喚
不想忘記沙灘上每一種流連
凌亂的腳步,不想

亮花花的太陽下冰淇淋溶化得那麼絕望
時間溶化得那麼絕望
很快我們也要溶化
像退潮的水不知能不能再回到同一沙岸
再拍響同一塊礁石
能不能

留住這最後一彎角落
留住海的波動,留住你
海鷗喊得徒勞
我不想忘記我們的腳步一步步
彷彿貝殼碎了
就要融入沙

或者敞開舌瓣
讓蜂蜜核桃冰淇淋襲捲
味蕾這赤裸的軟香
我們坐路邊板凳
讓陽光把我們曬成嫩綠的羊蹄甲

日落後
雕花的窗台赤裸裸敞開
彷彿牡蠣擁抱海
我們分享
彼此

能不能
我應許你滿天彩繡的羅帳
海鷗遠遠說喜歡喜歡
不打擾我們
所有衝浪的孩童與狗都回家
海邊只有浪花溫柔的慾望

那時你也在
沙灘上野雁都肥了,安靜陪我們打盹
聽浪
夕陽的帆船往對岸走
停泊妥當,應許明天再來

明天,總有一天

 

WON’T FORGET

1.
I won’t forget the ocean’s color,
the seagulls’ urgent cries,
each footprint on the sand
lost and lingering, don’t want

ice cream to melt so hopelessly in broiling sun,
the hours hopelessly dissolved
Soon we diminish, ebbing waves,
never to break again
on this rocky shore
Is it possible to freeze

a last oceanic undulation
and keep you
In vain cry the gulls
I won’t forget our steps,
one after one
merging in sand
like broken shells

2.
Spread the tongue,
let honey-walnut ice cream roll
sweetness over tastebuds
Let sunlight on this pathside bench
warm us like that green orchid tree

After sunset
the carved window
open as an oyster to the sea
We share
each other

3.
Is it possible
I promised you a skyful of soft silk,
its veil stitched with colored threads
Gulls call like like in the distance
so not to disturb us
Dogs and surfing kids drift home
from the seaside, leaving the soft spray

You were here then,
on a beach where wild geese fattened,
our slumber
deepened by the waves
Sunset’s sail crosses that far shore,
drops anchor, promises to unfurl

some day, if not tomorrow

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

白玫瑰
——想起

我要你想起我
像想起一朵白玫瑰,白玫瑰的
身體
它暖冬清晨的淺色調
水露的氣息

它野鴿子斂翅的姿態
緊緊收藏的心,雛黃色的
慢慢裸開
那花瓣隨即一瓣一瓣,一瓣瓣
鬆散,往外舒捲
橢圓的弧度

(它放鬆的身體
有野鴿子的羽翼
撲動著
欲飛)
在忽云忽雨的午後
看著自己飛……墜…飛……下

知道有一方土地
會承接它紛落的魂魄
會記得
一隻白鴿
飛過的姿態

 

WHITE ROSE

to remember

I wish that you think of me
as if recalling a white rose,
its bloom the mild tint
of a pleasant morning
and the dew’s exhalations

Its form like wild dove’s wings
once closed on a cream-colored heart,
opening, exposed
as these petals, one and another
curved in the soft arc
of slow release

Such supple shape
trembling like dove’s wings
to slip through afternoon air,
sometime clouds sometime rain,
sensing their own
rise and fall, rise and fall

as the earth
recalls each spiralling soul
so like memory
the white gesture
passing as a dove

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell

想念

想念比路長比雨季長比蛇的沈思貓的凝視長比垂榕的亂髮比修女的晚禱長
想念比銀河長比一萬六千行的荷馬史詩長比縈繞的蟬夢比寒武紀的空窗長
比枕間的吻比城市懺悔的燈影長那距離恰巧是櫻花從樹肩緩緩落地的距離

LONGING

Longing is longer than a road than the rainy season than a snake’s thought or
a cat’s gaze longer than the weeping figtree’s tangled hair than the nun’s vespers
Longer than the Milky Way than the sixteen-thousand-line Homeric Hymns
Longer than the lingering cicada’s dream and the blank Cambrian era
Longer than a kiss lives on a pillow than the remorseful shadows of the streetlamps
its measure the span of a cherry blossom’s immeasurable descent

trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell