Spinning Polyhedral Mirror Part 1 (Yan Li) Poem by Denis Mair

多面旋转镜体 上

by Yan Li
(Translated by Denis Mair)

1.
我虽然因失恋而吞下了五十片安眠药
但她有使我失眠的五十一个理由

Though our breakup made me swallow fifty sleeping pills
She gives me fifty-one reasons to have insomnia

2.
到了爱情不再深入骨头的时候
身上的肉就开始为肉而吃肉

When love no longer penetrates to the bone
The meat of your body starts eating meat for meat's sake

3.
猛然相见
已经在同一条路上

Suddenly we see each other
Already we are on the same road

4.
艺术家常常在两个极端处还悬出去
半个身子
口中喊着几句精致的救命

Artists often lean their bodies
Over the edge of two extremes
From their mouths come finely crafted shouts for help

5.
逆风正在梳我的发型
为了美
不回头

A head-on wind is styling my hair
For beauty's sake
I do not look back

6.
分手的手更会写诗

Hands that have gone through a break-up are better at writing poetry

7.
自从他在黑暗中摸出了双手的黑色
黑色就没有离开过他的笔

His hands were blackened from groping in darkness
Since then the color black has not left his pen

8.
虽然是在异乡的被子底下
但我绣在被子上的母语花令蜜蜂失眠

While I lie beneath my quilt in an alien land
Honeybees get insomnia from the native-language embroidery

9.
每当小说里面的路上
闪现出一位村姑时
我都情不自禁地扛起锄头

Each time the road in a novel
Flashes the image of a country girl
I always feel myself shoulder a hoe

10.
只要能使我热爱的家园的地温升高半度
请把我活着埋下去

If only the soil temperature of this beloved land would rise half a degree
Go ahead and bury me alive

11.
只有梦想是人类砍伐不尽的森林

Dreams are the only forest that mankind cannot clearcut

12.
棺材是我继续失眠的床
In the bed of my coffin I will continue my insomnia

13.
用挖土机把太阳提早从地平线下挖出来

Use a backhoe on the horizon to dig the sun up early

14.
我要疯狂地运转
我不是天才
我是二十世纪一台爱玩电的机器

I want to operate recklessly
I'm not a genius
I'm a Twentieth Century machine
And I like playing with electricity

15.
自杀是那扇唯一用人体作为钥匙
去关掉的门

Suicide is the only door
That gets locked from the other side
Using the human body as a key

16.
我的近视必须戴上眼泪才能看清生活

My nearsightedness must wear tears to see life clearly

17.
你必须长成一件武器
才能躺在草地上不被虫咬

You have to grow into a weapon
To lie in the grass and not be bitten by bugs

18.
生命最终是一块雕完的木头
曾经被绿叶生长过

Life in the end is a piece of carved wood
That once was grown by green leaves

19.
污染的别名就是没有个性
没有个性的人在制造污染

Another name for pollution is lack of personality
People who lack personality cause pollution

20.
说到宠物
二十二世纪的我
一定要在笼子里养几架轰炸机

You ask about pets?
In the Twenty-Second Century
I'm going to keep a cage full of fighter planes

21.
我的血喊着他们的血
不要在战场里面循环

My blood cries to your blood
Let's not circulate in a battlefield

22.
节日之际
让我像气球一样被你牵在手里
气球里是你吹进去的希望

Over the holidays
May I be led like a balloon in your hand
A balloon filled with hope blown in by your mouth

23.
明天
我要在博物馆里修理几个小时的战争作为消遣
明天
我向其他星球走私和平时不收美金

Tomorrow
I will rest in a museum by fixing up a few hours of war
Tomorrow
Smuggling peace to other planets I will not accept U.S. dollars!

24.
我不想乘坐病床进入二十一世纪
但二十一世纪会乘坐病床进入我的身体

I don't want to ride a sickbed into the 21st Century
But the 21st Century rides into my body on a sickbed of its own

25.
就用这个世界所有的乌云证明
我活着是为了替自己撑伞

With all the dark clouds of the world as my witness
I was born to hold my own umbrella

26.
我的每一次回头都拧伤了我的领子
因为我和我的家一起离家出走了

Each time I turn my head
I stretch my collar out of shape
Because my home and I ran away from home together

27.
我在纽约的丛林中追逐一头名叫孤独的野兽
我不相信这头野兽的皮因为孤独而不保暖

In the forest of New York, I chase a beast called "Loneliness"
I don't think being lonely makes its fur any less warm

28.
活得像一块石头需要很多条件
除了质地、颜色、温度与形状
还要比人类知道更多地球的历史秘密并且不说

To live like a stone, many conditions must be met
Besides texture, color, temperature, and shape
You have to know more of the earth's historical secrets
Than mankind does, yet not speak of them

29.
不管你是多麽年轻
都要在脑袋里抚养那个名叫思想的老人

No matter how young you are
Within your mind, you have to take care
Of the senior citizen named "Thought"

30.
钟表是最残酷的折磨时间的刑具

A wristwatch is the cruelest device for torturing time

31.
向人类社会再借一些悲伤是要排队的
这个世界最悲的悲伤到底曾借给谁
只有逃债的人才知道

If you want to borrow more sorrow from humanity you have to stand in line
But whom have the world's saddest sorrows been lent to?
Only the evader of debt knows for sure

32.
全世界使用吹口琴的姿势
消费汉堡内在的美国音乐

The whole world strikes a harmonica-playing pose
As it consumes the American music within a hamburger

33.
如果我是一只老鼠
我一定会挖世界的墙脚
并歌诵四通八达的地下生活

If I were a rat
I would undermine the world's walls
And sing how underground life goes in all directions

34.
任何一种社会
都是我灵感的健身房
直到把我锻炼成一个新的健身器材

Any kind of society
Can be the workout room for my inspiration
Until I buff myself into a piece of exercise equipment

35.
是谁替地球上着发条？
每天转动门把的时候
我都会想这个问题

"Who winds up the earth's mainspring? "
I wonder each day
As I turn the doorknob

36.
人在拥挤的环境中互相冶炼成钢铁
但太多的钢铁使价格下跌

In crowded environments, people temper each other into steel
But too much steel causes steel prices to fall

37.
许多人挤在生活的流水线旁
因为重复是弱者的窝

Many people crowd along the mass-production line of life
Because repetition is the nest of the weak

38.
许多人跳入自身之後
才发现还没有学会游泳

After plunging into themselves
Many people find they cannot swim

39.
百姓就是为了生活日用品的改朝换代
而把自己投票成为百姓的人

In the dynastic succession of daily necessities
Common folk always vote to be common

40.
保护动物
保护股票市场里不断摔伤骑士的
那群资本主义的马

Preserve the animals!
Preserve the stock market's herd of capitalist horses
That often throw riders to the ground

41.
我的同胞终於在他们哭过很久的地方
开始造盐

In places where my countrymen have wept for a long time
They begin to make salt

42.
这个世界谁都可能是多馀的
按经济规律来讲
多馀的钱才能投资

Any one person in this world is superfluous
But according to the laws of economics
Only surplus value can be invested

43.
冰凌是我的羽毛
只要春天不来
我就可以顺利地飞回我的墓穴

Sharp edges of ice are my feathers
As long as spring doesn't come
I will glide with ease back to my grave

44.
风卷着鱼的歌声入城
我闻到了那股网外甜甜的腥味

Wind blows fish-songs into the city
I smell a sweet tang from beyond the net

45.
我喜欢自由
但总觉得笼子穿在身上太大

I like freedom
But I feel that a cage is too bulky to wear

46.
人类是人类的遗迹

Humanity is the aftermath of humanity

47.
巢是鸟强加给树的生活

A nest is life imposed upon a tree by birds

48.
读者阿如果你碰巧是个医生
你如何面对那用疯狂地发病来写作人体的作者？

Reader, if you happen to be a doctor
How will you face a writer who uses the onset of mania
To write about the human body?

49.
我在任何一个地方都干最简易的体力活
我在拆鸟笼
我在任何一个镜子面前都重复最原始的动作
我在梳理羽毛

Anyplace I go, I do the simplest manual work
Tearing apart bird cages
In front of any mirror I repeat the most primitive motions
Preening my feathers

50.
一桩使集体脸红的事情
只发生在人类民族意识的小巷里

An event that makes the collective face turn red
Only happens in back alleys of a nation's consciousness

51.
地下文学是在土壤里面飘荡的树根

Underground literature comes from roots adrift within the soil

52.
党派之争必须把打群架的理由升高到
国家与民族的地位
因为那儿有最好的条件疗伤

Inter-party conflict must elevate the reason for a gang fight
To national or racial status
Because that is where convalescents get the best treatment

53.
往前走
不踢一点东西显得过於斯文
他把「门」字
缝在库脚上
那扇国家的门

Walking along
If you don't kick something, you start to look effete
He has the word "door" embroidered on his trouser leg
The door to a nation

54.
脸上涂满了优美的细菌
等待它们繁殖成笑容
我的女儿阿
这种永恒的病毒
保证了我的女婿是一个优秀的病人

Germs of beauty are spread across your face
Waiting to multiply into a smile
Ah, my daughter
Such eternal germs
Guarantee that my son-in-law will be an outstanding patient

55.
那是一块易於生长家具的森林
那里住着我的家

That is a forest where furniture easily grows
In it lives my house

56.
那些飞翔的都是一本本书阿
翻看过许多翅膀的天空
读出了搭窝的乐处之後
在人眼里孵出了两片纯净的蓝色

Book after book soars by up above
The sky that has leafed through countless wings
After reading the joy of a nest
Hatches pure blue expanses in people's eyes

57.
父母想把每一块家里的砖
都培养成纪念碑

Parents want to nurture every brick in the house
Into a memorial plaque

58.
墙上那幅风景画里的断桥在作证
以後的历史都是从水里游过去的

The broken bridge in the scenic painting on the wall
Proves that history since then had to swim across the water

59.
这个世界
只剩下风景照片里的鸟窝才有安全感
而我更是躲在还没曝光的底片里

In this world
Only birds' nests in scenic photographs are left with a sense of security
I go farther and hide within unexposed film

60.
在郊外度假时
犀牛晃进了我心中的非洲
但是庸俗的猎枪提醒我
它对犀牛角有着无法克制的价格嗅觉

On vacation away from the city
A rhino took cover in the Africa of my heart
But rifles of conventionality reminded me
How keenly they smell the value of aphrodisiac horns

61.
音乐搅动着舞蹈的人群
像勺子搅动加糖的咖啡
为了伺候心中的那个舞厅
我连勺子一起喝下

Music stirs the dancing crowd
Like a spoon stirring sugar in coffee
To take care of my inner dance floor
I gulp the spoon right down

62.
人类是地球最好的产品
可惜出口的希望无限渺茫

Mankind is planet earth's prime commodity
Unfortunately, the chances for export are exceedingly small

63.
凡植物都会从花走向果实
唯人类可以到花为止

Plants all go from flower to fruit
Only humans can stop at the flower

64.
既然生活在我身上种植阳光
我就要在阳光的枝上结出阴天的果实
绝不能在阳光上重复阳光

Now that life has planted sunlight in my body
On the tips of these rays, I want to form dark fruits
I refuse to repeat sunlight on top of sunlight

65.
他热爱宠物的心结已经无可救药
他用他的心胸甚至容纳所有独裁者的走狗

The patient's pet-loving complex is beyond treatment
He has the capacity to accept the running dogs of all dictators

66.
从旗帜上剪下两块布
补我磨破的袖口
体会两袖清风曾被举起来的滋味

Two pieces of cloth cut from a flag
Patch my worn shirt at the elbows
I feel a wind of carefree beggardom lifting my sleeves

67.
听见了面包发霉之後的咳嗽
麦子们放慢了生长的脚步

Hearing the cough of bread that has grown moldy
Wheat sprouts slow down the pace of their growing

68.
世界地图的反面还有整版空白
那一定是上帝留给画家的遗产

On the back side of the world map is a blank space
This is the inheritance that God left to artists

69.
镜子在我滴着水银的双眼前
照见了它哭肿的玻璃

Before my eyes dripping with quicksilver tears
The mirror shows glass grown puffy from crying

By Yan Li严力