Chair At The Poetry Reading Poem by Denis Mair

CHAIR R-A-T-T-L-E-S ON FLOOR
Something uneasy in its seat
Making back-talk to words,
Noise from a restless hand
Sets our furniture a-kilter.
Naughty guest at our seance isn't happy
Announcing its presence through a medium.
There is no silent, level field any more
On which you are free to dictate terms,
Or lay on colors like putty:
How can you paint on canvas that is jutting
Like the roofline of the Sydney Concert Hall?
Chair speaks a double language
To tender ones who expose their quick- -who shoulder weight,
And go thrashing in the wasteland of their own perceptions.
R-A-T-T-L-E...
"HEARHEAR, what you say is important!
Your words betoken all the starving artistes to come."
At the same time, the chair hoots them down:
Chair is distillation of the veritable beast.c
Chair is unforgiving wooden tongue of circumstance.
Chair doesn't want to hear about it,
Chair has problems of its own.
You'll never get good on open mike
Unless you master the inflections of chair language
That lurk in cracks among your wall of words.
R-A-T-T-L-E
Hoot down the wind-up denture mechanism of rant;
Hoot down truth spoken over the heads of the fallen;
Hoot down words that fail to charm the beast;
Hoot down loss that cannot lament with abundance.
Don't suppose we are naked of supposition.
Context is all, says CHAIR at the front door,
Fumbling lounge chairs on the pavement
From one jangled nerve net to another.
R-A-T-T-L-E
Urge on the cock strutting his rainbow words for us,
Urge on fingers of hungry flame across a chasm,
Urge on the hand snatching something from Niagara,
Urge on the inventory of oceanic debris,
Urge on catalogues of the warehouse belly of God,
Urge on softness of moonlight laid on all equally,
Urge on offerings in the temple of a pure girl's heart,
Urge on the hurt child summoning back his love,
R-A-T-T-L-E
Urge on the one who uses words to forget words,
Who runs with our feelings, hits on all our cylinders
Who dunks us in the stream of common thought,
Who tricks our heads to disappear together.
Truly, we are one beast when our higher heads
Go ravelling along the same ripple-front,
Even though we fall back to aloneness
And re-discover our particular place.
Urge on the stage manager of farcical squabbles
Giantism of untied balloons going BLEAHH-GAG,
Urge on alternations of flattering and nasty light
Urge desires to keep each other in a holding pattern
To preserve the pudding of perplexity,
To ease our way with all due judgment of gravity,
Into crazy stampedes and any necessary avalanche.

.................................


Thanks to my friend Wang Hao (professor of Translation Studies, Yunnan University) for translating this into Chinese.

椅子亲临诗歌朗诵会

梅丹理 （Denis Mair）

- - - 上世纪九十年代后期，我时而会去洛杉矶威尼斯区的文艺活动中心参加"开放麦克风"系列诗歌朗诵会。（活动中心的主任是美国著名哲学家詹姆斯·杜威的后人，其前一任负责人于八十年代在中心门口遭黑帮青年枪杀，死于非命。）那个年代的诗歌朗诵会往往弥漫着一种非常特殊的氛围，到会的朗诵者和听众形形色色，来自社会的各个阶层：有不知名的演员，也有游走社会的异类；有艺术家，也有文艺青年；还有工人、行业人士和混帮派的年轻人。面对鱼龙混杂的听众，偶尔也会令人隐约感到某种威胁。主持人用即兴的评语和好玩的人物介绍，靠幽默和智慧营造一种融洽的气氛，即使说不上肃静，但大部分的人总是愿意洗耳恭听，看下一个朗诵人会拿出什么货？如果你朗诵的时候抓不住听众的注意力，很快会感到一种浮躁的气场。我在那场合里与各色人等摩擦碰撞，深深觉得那是极为难得的艺术体验和提升自我的机会。


椅子在地板上嘎吱作响
椅座里有个东西烦躁不安
在那儿跟言词顶嘴
一只焦虑的手发出的噪声
让我们的家具东倒西歪。
我们通灵会上的这位来客颇不安分
不乐意借灵媒之口宣示自己的到场.
再也没有安静、平整的赛场
让你无所顾忌，任意设置规则
或是像刮腻子一样涂油彩：
在凹凸如悉尼音乐厅屋顶的画布上
你如何能够信笔挥洒？
椅子讲的是双重语言
针对露出脆弱皮肉的温雅的人——他们肩负重担
并在自身知觉的荒原上横冲直撞。
嘎吱，嘎吱……
"说得好，说得好！你的见解很重要；
你的话语在预先描绘众多挨饿的文艺青年！"
同时，椅子也朝他们喝倒彩：
椅子简直是原初大兽的体现。
椅子有时是事物不依不饶的木舌头。
椅子不想听，
椅子有自己的问题。
你别想在开放朗诵会上作出游刃有余表演
除非你能驾驭椅子话语的轻重音变化
而那话语就藏在语言那道墙的缝隙之间。
嘎吱，嘎吱
给上了发条在那里絮絮叨叨的机械假牙喝倒彩；
给面向瘫倒者的高谈阔论喝倒彩；
给无法魅惑那大兽的言词喝倒彩；
还有那些在悲号中缺乏厚度的失意者，也给它们喝倒彩。
千万别假设我们不会给出自己的假设。
语境就是一切，椅子在前门说着，
一边在地面上捣腾折叠椅
从一个受折磨的神经网络传给下一个。
嘎吱，嘎吱
鼓动那只向我们炫耀彩虹文字的公鸡
鼓动那些跨过深谷的手指般的饥饿火焰.
鼓动那只在尼亚加拉瀑布接住落物的手，
鼓动海中残骸碎片的库存表，
鼓动上帝满肚子仓储的明细单，
鼓动均匀地洒向一切的月光的柔软，
鼓动人们在那座庙堂般的纯洁少女的心灵前所献的供品，
鼓动受伤的孩子唤回心中的爱，
嘎吱，嘎吱
鼓动用语词忘记语词的那个人，
他带着我们的情感奔跑，点燃我们的每一只汽缸
他把我们浸没在共同的思维洪流中，
他哄着我们的头脑消失到同一个地方。
的确，我们已经合为一只大兽，当我们抬得更高的头
随着同一片涟漪的边沿向外荡开
即便我们终将坠回到独行之中
并再次发现我们独特的位置。
鼓动滑稽吵闹剧的舞台监督
患巨人症的气球漏气了，噗——嗤——咂—哇- -
鼓动美化和丑化容貌的灯光交替闪亮
鼓动各种欲望互相牵绊，并存下去
保存困惑的百感交集的浓汁，
用一切应有的稳重判断疏通我们的道路，
走向疯狂的踩踏和一切必要的雪崩。

王浩、梅丹理 译