Bodies in a Circus - Yao Feng / 姚 风

Yao Feng / 姚 风





Bodies in a Circus

The body, or the flesh,
a human organism constituted of cells, muscles, and bones.
Linguistically it has different names.
Sociologically it has different meanings.

The body is individual, but more so it is of a circus.
The body’s lion
Under the trainer’s leather whip
Must tame all its personal feelings and desires.
Under the staring eyes of the many
It must most obediently duck through the ring of fire
and walk on the balance beam.
Or let a monkey ride on it.
When it is starving it opens its big bloody mouth,
Yet the trainer’s head stuck into it, it must spit out.

The body is surely not to think but only to perceive.
The body holds on to more secrets than thought.
Truth takes on the shape of the body.
If the body were to speak out and reveal all truths,
If the sexual organs were to speak out and reveal all secrets,
It would be enough to change this world.
The body must obey many rules.
It must follow leaders of all ranks.
Constantly it receives and executes all kinds of orders:
Physical ones, ideological ones, political ones, ethical ones,

customary ones, legal ones, pathological ones …
The body is a substitute for the soul, the mind, and the emotions.
It suffers torment, pain, and destruction.
Again and again even revolutions and wars start from the body as well.
Scarred with bruises and bloodstained it is filled with sorrow, tears, and death,
And the happy times are always so short.
And this once the circus performance is over: When a body
Tightly embraces another body.

(Translated by Hans-Georg Moeller)




马戏团中的身体

身体，或者肉体
一个由细胞、肌肉和骨骼组成的人的活体
在语言学中有不同的命名
在社会学中有不同的意义

身体是个人的，但更是马戏团的
身体的狮子
在驯兽师的皮鞭下
必须驯服自己的七情六欲
必须在众目睽睽之下
服服帖帖地钻火圈，走平衡木
或者让一只猴子骑在身上
即使饥肠辘辘，张开了血盆大口
也要把驯兽师伸进来的脑袋吐出来

身体并不去思想，只是感受
身体比思想拥有更多的秘密
真实长得最像的就是身体
如果身体说出所有的真实
如果生殖系统说出所有的秘密
就足以改变这个世界

身体必须遵守众多的规条
必须服从各级领导
时刻接受并执行各种指令：
生理的、思想的、政治的、伦理的、习俗的、法律的、
疾病的……

身体是替身，它为灵魂、思想或情感
遭受折磨、痛苦和毁灭
甚至一次次革命和战争也是从身体开始的
它伤痕累累，血迹斑斑，装满了悲哀、眼泪和死亡
而欢愉的时光总是那么短暂
那是在马戏表演结束之后：当一个身体
紧紧抱住另一个身体的时候


*



bad’ns

I have a feeling some people are naturally bad
but I treat them as if they were good
like law before the judgment’s given

all suspects were once deemed guilty
and the bad guys-they’re the ones with the caps
and the roll-ups held in their teeth

on the screen of childhood
they do all kinds of evil
my young tail’s been cut off
likewise my appendix
then I’ve more suffered
but I look around, I still can’t see
anyone wearing one of those caps

(Translated by Kit Kelen & Jenny Lao)




坏 人

我怀疑一些人是坏人
但依旧把他们当成好人
就像法律
在审判之前
所有的犯罪嫌疑人都推定为无罪

而坏人
是那些带着鸭舌帽
他们在我童年的银幕上
作恶多端
如今，我已长大成人

已经割掉青春的尾巴
和天真的盲肠
因此我受到更多的伤害
但在我的周围
始终没有发现戴鸭舌帽的人
叼着烟卷的人



***



Yao Feng is a pen name of Yao Jingming who was born in Beijing and received his PhD in Comparative Literature from Fudan Universi¬ty. He served as the Vice President of Macao Cultural Affairs Bureau and is currently a professor at the University of Macau. He is a well-known poet and has published eighteen books of poetry and prose, in Chinese or in Portuguese. He is also engaged in literary translation and has translated poems of many Portuguese poets into Chinese. As a re¬searcher of Portuguese literature, he has published History of Literary Exchange Between China and Portugal and more than thirty essays. He has received several literary awards and in 2006 he was awarded the medal of the Military Order of Santiago de Espada by the President of Portugal. As an artist, he has held two solo exhibitions under the titles Belonging and No-subjuntive. He is a curator and has organized vari¬ous exhibitions.


姚风，本名姚京明，诗人、译者、策展人，曾任澳门文化局副局长、澳门大学葡文系主任，现为澳门大学葡文系教授。出版有《写在风的翅膀上》《大海上的柠檬》《厌倦语法的词语》《龙须糖万岁》《不写也是写的一部分》等十八部中葡文诗集和随笔集。作为学者，出版有《中国古典诗歌葡译本评析》《中国—葡萄牙文学交流史》等论著以及三十余篇学术论文。译有《中国当代十诗人作品选》《在水中热爱火焰》《我的心迟到了》《未来是一个清晨》等数十部诗集。曾为多个艺术展担任策展人并举办过“于斯”装置艺术展以及“并非虚拟”个人艺术展。获得过内地、澳门和台湾颁发的多个文学奖以及葡萄牙总统颁授的“圣地亚哥宝剑勋章”。