Mang Ke
In the Street
I can’t be sure of my age today:
Maybe I am only ten years old.
But I know my mind, my mind
Thinks of filthy things.
Today, on the street,
I step hard on the shadow of a girl.
A baby totters in the gutter,
Then falls asleep, his hip cupped
By someone I don’t know.
An old man, not far from me,
Grabs some nastiness from the ground.
I don’t know. No one notices.
Kids piss in the street,
Their bellies open to the sun.
Suddenly, a dog of all things
Scampers by. I run too. Nobody knows
Who retched his dinner in the street.
I look away. Suddenly,
A woman, a pair of bedroom eyes
Nails me, balloons like the fat man
Who also stares at me. I hardly know
Why they accost me in this way.
What does that fat man have in mind?
Then someone slaps a cat—
Who knows what for? It runs off
Whimpering to one retarded man,
The mad whining to the mad.
I think: why not jump up and scratch
Someone’s face, cat? The idiot gapes.
O.K., run off. Cat, I wish you
No good end. Then high up
On a building, some girl’s ugly face
Pokes out an open window.
I say, Hey there!, teasing her
To the point of fear. Such a serious girl!
Then a woman, her face like a siren,
Rushes away. Close behind
The cussing of her man,
All to the lewd amusement of the crowd.
One guy spits, hits the picture
Of a woman on the wall behind him.
Then some bum, so blind he scours
The street with his feet,
Bumps into me. In favor of food
The crowd scatters off, the richest
to restaurants. Some sleek-haired guy
Heads for the shitter,
Running, unbuckling on the way.
Even the sun escapes in a hurry
As if it had a home.
Then it’s darker. I wander.
In the street, my silence. My hunger.
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Mang Ke
City
| Your lonely head wakes up, The late-night wind in the still street Dizzy as a lost child Running here and there. *
The street tortured like a limp rag.
*
Sleep soundly, sky,
*
Or maybe I am dreaming after all,
*
A ray, a wisp of hair
*
So, people, woo each other,
*
Oh city, oh oriental child
*
Oh zither of the sun, one sick child
*
Oh city, in the eyes of children
*
The night never leaves me alone. |
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Mang Ke
Close Your Eyes
Close your eyes, bury yourself
Then you will see, never again,
How the red flower
Was cut off in the sun
Thrown onto the ground
Trampled in the night
Close your eyes, bury yourself
Then, in your isolation,
Never again this sorrow
Oh, people, bound to this end
Come from darkness
Vanished in darkness
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Mang Ke
One Night Stand
You lightly opened the door
Let the night, who slept with you, out
You saw its back disappear
Then heard the wheeled horniness of dawn
Opening the window
You drove out a roomful of dreams
Swept clean all the feathers
Of your hidden happiness
In the mirror your two eyes floating
As if separately in their sockets
As if two fish after touching
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Mang Ke
Spring
To the comatose earth
The sun gives its blood
Sunshine floats
In the body of the earth
From the bones of the dead
Green branches grow
From the green branches
Glass-like flowers
Listen, have you heard
The clink of that raised wine?
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
Early Summer
Dark cloud, lighter and lighter
I jump out the round window
Of the moon, over
The gathered water of the fields
Such beauty, such tranquility
Green sprouts shoot: the village’s
Fresh-made walls of mud
Each door fresh, clean as a flower
The window’s paper pane
Blank as an envelope
Do not believe me
Do not believe anyone
Flowers pining with love
Tucked in the hard round
Knockers of your door
Let all stories begin
With the scent of surprise
Soon it will be morning
Come on! Climb that tree!
I shed my straw hat
The husk of all custom
Now I am the light-green cicada
Now I am ready to sing
But the rooster’s too old
Drab feathers sweep the ground
All little girls, those early risers,
Come to the field to gather smiles:
Ripe cherries left by spring.
1982
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
Sunset
The setting sun’s twisted light
Drifts through the rise
Of buildings, falls to the ground.
Tall slim girl
Shining barrette.
How many dresses
half dry, half wet
yawning in the shade?
Early ripe little lights
Golden tangerines.
The shift ends.
The bicycle bell sings:
Careful.
One bit of worn brick.
The fresh-drawn wish of a child.
1983
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
Partners
Was it yesterday? The day before?
Anyway, it was before
We wrapped a stone in a handkerchief
Threw it up into the sky’s blue—
What dizziness, the earth and sky
Swinging terribly around each other
We opened hands warmed by one another
Waited our punishment from God
But no thunder, no lightening
The stone silently floating back
What about that handkerchief?
We looked at the top of an old tree
From then on we never saw it again
Anyway, it was a long time ago
Only the loyalty of a stone
Thinks forever of its lovely partner
1980
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
The Enemy In Defensive Positions
The important thing is to escape
My horse is bamboo
Bamboo branches hanging high in the room
Jump
The sun-blurred barren land
1987
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
The Poet’s Tragedy
The poet says
The earth’s an apple
The sun says
I burn it red
The sea goes dry
Fields once green fly with dust
There’s no surprise only four bricks and tiles
Right out of the fire
What about the honored poet?
He took off long ago
But isn’t there in his poems
The worm that drilled the apple?
1981
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
Gu Cheng
The Truth of It
The flashy urn says:
I’m worth a thousand hammers
the hammer says:
I’ve broken one hundred urns
The blacksmith says:
I have made one thousand hammers
The great man says:
I have slaughtered one hundred blacksmiths
Then the hammer says back:
I have also killed one great man
The urn says: So what? I’ve sealed
In me the ash of that great man
1988
(Translated from the Chinese by Stephen Haven and Wang Shouyi)
