A Grateful Drunkard

A Grateful Drunkard

a drunkard
is vomitingSpacer10 in the city
in the evening glow
he keeps vomiting
on a bridge over the moat
as if singing loud
he throws up food he has eaten
and his bile
when I stop and see this
on my way home from work
I feel quite moved in a moment
I think everyone
must have their own way to show life
gratitude


《感恩的酒鬼》

伊沙

一个酒鬼
在呕吐 在城市
傍晚的霞光中呕吐
在护城河的一座桥上
大吐不止 那模样
像是放声歌唱
他吐出了他吃下的
还吐出了他的胆汁
我在下班回家的路上
驻足 目击了这一幕
忽然非常感动
我想每个人都有其独特的
对生活的感恩方式

Dream

Dream

A white swan,
neck arched
like a clear rainbow,
plunges into
a glassy lake surface,
drinking.
I awake
with a mouthful of
thirst.


《梦》

伊沙

一只白天鹅
弯曲的脖子
像素洁的彩虹
伸入玻璃的湖面
饮水
我满嘴渴意地
醒来

Nursing Home

Nursing Home

Early spring.
An expanse of wilderness,
vast and bleak.
Contaminated waves surging around.
Alone stands a colourful isle,
like childhood blocks
once deserted by God. *

* "God” (l. 7): deliberately kept in the singular and capitalised in the Judeo-Christian tradition.


《老人院》

伊沙

早春广袤荒凉的原野
被污染的海浪汹涌着
一座五颜六色的孤岛
上帝遗弃的童年积木

Pigeon

Pigeon

in my field of vision
a white pigeon in the distance
is flying through the raging fire
it flies
even though it turns black
perhaps it is the shadow, the soul
of it
that flies Spacer10perhaps the ashes
will still hold the shape of a pigeon
flying high


《鸽子》

伊沙

在我平视的远景里
一只白色的鸽子
穿过冲天大火
继续在飞
飞成一只黑鸟
也许只是它的影子
它的灵魂
在飞 也许灰烬
也会保持

Poetic Truth

Poetic Truth

38th Parallel
is not a line.
Four kilometres wide,
it’s a demilitarized zone
demarcating North and South Korea.
Six decades later
it has become the world's most successful
animal sanctuary.


《事实的诗意》

伊沙

三八线
不是一条线
它有4公里宽
南北朝鲜划定的
非军事区
60年过去了
成为世界上
最成功的动物保护区

Poets Starved to Death

Poets Starved to Death

it’s so easy Spacer10that you
begin to repeat agriculture
farming matters
and the wheat harvesters drip with sweat
as seasons roll on by
you think the wheat grains are tears
you shed for women?
the wheat awns soft as bristles
you glued to your cheeks?
that year you thronged the road to vagrancy
the wheat in the north ripened on its own
wielding sickles
of sunlight
to cut off the stalks Spacer10its own neck
the last tie with the land
to feed you
the poets were replete
a boundless stretch of fields
oozing fragrance in their stomachs
the greatest sluggards in the city
have made themselves glorious farmers in poetry
in the name of sunlight and rain Spacer10I make my appeal
to wheat: starve them to death
the damned poets
starve me first —
an accomplice contaminating the land with ink
a bastard in the world of art


《饿死诗人》

伊沙

那样轻松的 你们
开始复述农业
耕作的事宜以及
春来秋去
挥汗如雨 收获麦子
你们以为麦粒就是你们
为女人迸溅的泪滴吗
麦芒就像你们贴在腮帮上的
猪鬃般柔软吗
你们拥挤在流浪之路的那一年
北方的麦子自个儿长大了
它们挥舞着一弯弯
阳光之镰
割断麦杆 自己的脖子
割断与土地最后的联系
成全了你们
诗人们已经吃饱了
一望无边的麦田
在他们腹中香气弥漫
城市中最伟大的懒汉
做了诗歌中光荣的农夫
麦子 以阳光和雨水的名义
我呼吁:饿死他们
狗日的诗人
首先饿死我
一个用墨水污染土地的帮凶
一个艺术世界的杂种

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

in the small theatre
of the experimental drama troupe

Waiting for Godot
Was being staged

People waited and waited
For Godot who didn’t come

Knowing he’d never show up
No one took it seriously

Some felt like nodding off
Right at the moment

The play was drawing to an end
Someone rushed onto the stage

Beyond “beyond expectation”
Nothing short of exciting

The intruder, ill-intended he seemed
Was the old gatekeeper’s gawky son

Who had broken the defence
And hurtled to centre stage

“Uncle, uncle,” he cried out
Begging for sweets

“Godot comes!”
All rose and applauded


《等待戈多》

伊沙

实验剧团的
小剧场

正在上演
《等待戈多》

左等右等
戈多不来

知道他不在
没人真在等

有人开始犯困
可就在这时

在《等待戈多》的尾声
有人冲上了台

出乎了“出乎意料”
实在令人振奋

此来者不善
乃剧场看门老头儿的傻公子

拦都拦不住
窜至舞台中央

喊着叔叔
哭着要糖

“戈多来了!”
全体起立热烈鼓掌

Yi Sha, the pen name of Wu Wenjian, was born in Chengdu, a former capital at various times ancient and modern in the western province of Sichuan in May 1966, the very month Mao Zedong launched his so-called “great proletarian cultural revolution.” Two years later, his family moved to Xi’an, the ancient capital of the north-west province of Shaanxi, marking the beginning of the Euro-Asian trade routes known as the Silk Road. Currently, he teaches in the Department of Chinese Language & Literature at Xi’an Foreign Languages University. Yi Sha is nowadays regarded as one of the most prominent Chinese avant-garde writers, influencing many poetic movements in China. For those interested in his radical thinking, see Yi Sha, “I Have Something to Say,” trans. Heather Inwood, Chinese Literature Today, vol. 2, no. 2, 2012, pp. 16-17. His major poetry collections include Esi de shiren [“Poets Starved to Death”] (1994) and Yi Sha shixuam [“Yi Sha’s Poems”] (2003), the best-known selection of which in the Anglophone world being Starve the Poets! translated by Simon Patton & Tao Naikan (Tarset: Bloodaxe Books, 2008) which was preceded online by a score of translations by Simon Patton in the Poetry International Web [1st September 2004], at: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/976/Yi-Sha