A Guide to Funeral Arrangements - Yang Xiao Bin / 杨小滨

Yang Xiao Bin / 杨小滨







A Guide to Funeral Arrangements

When I had just died, everyone

blamed me for leaving in a hurry.

It was actually my first time dying –

I forgot my wallet and keys.

“Be back in a minute.”

I closed my mouth behind me,

snuffed the sunlight in my throat.

I thought my next death might be more attractive,

at least I’d remember to wash

all the burrs off me in a dream.

Later, I lost my singing voice.

I wanted to wake, but

they thought it better with me dead,

and lit some fires

to celebrate my silence.

(Translated by Canaan Morse)







后事指南

我刚死的时候，他们

都怪我走得太匆忙。

其实，我也是第一次死，

忘了带钱包和钥匙。

“一会儿就回来，”

我随手关上嘴巴，熄掉

喉咙深处的阳光。

我想下次还可以死得再好看些。

至少，要记得在梦里

洗干净全身的毛刺。

后来，我有点唱不出声。

我突然想醒过来，但

他们觉得我还是死了的好，

就点了些火，庆祝我的沉默。

***






Yang Xiaobin, poet, critic and artist, was born in Shanghai in 1963. He is the author of nine poetry volumes and a number of critical/scholarly works in both Chinese and English. He won the 1994 Debut Poetry Collection Prize from Taiwan for his book Across the Sunlight Zone, among other international and domestic literary prizes. Having earned his Ph.D. at Yale University and served as Professor of Chinese at the University of Mississippi, Yang Xiaobin is now Research Fellow at Academia Sinica and lives in Taipei.


杨小滨. 1963 年7 月生于上海，诗人、评论家、艺术家。复旦大学毕业，耶鲁大学博士，现为台湾中研院文哲所研究员。著有诗集《穿越阳光地带》、《景色与情节》、《为女太阳干杯》、《杨小滨诗X3》、《女世界》、《多谈点主义》、《指南录·自修课》、《到海巢去》等，专著《否定的美学》、《历史与修辞》、《中国后现代》、《无调性文化瞬间》等。曾获台湾现代诗社第一本诗集奖，纳吉·阿曼国际文学奖最佳创作奖，红枫诗歌奖特别贡献奖等。