Desolation Picture - Pang Yuliang / 庞余亮

Pang Yuliang / 庞余亮





Desolation Picture

The old village is empty and must be filled with wheat fields
The desolation of the edge of a field can only be solved by steamed buns
(Steamed bun, also known as steamed bread
Hemispherical or cuboid)

Hemispherical steamed buns are handmade
while cuboid steamed buns are from an old nasty kitchen knife
Emerging from the vapor in the bamboo steamer
Those knife marks have long been hidden

(The size of a steamed bun ranges from 4 centimeters
to 15 centimeters in diameter)

Homely little steamed buns are not really welcome
The most common five large steamed buns per steamer
Five pairs of bitter hands on it
Leaving behind thick fingerprints of plum blossoms

(Steamed buns are usually made of flour and water
steaming after fermentation)

Wheat holding flour in its arms
From the early summer with dark cloud coming down
Fresh wheat stubble
Witnessed
Countless rainwater fermenting

A skinny old man bending down to cut wheat
A harvester owner from Anhui
sitting on the ridge of the field side by side
Coughing heard one after another
like a cough relay
like a tug-of-war with a silent field

At this moment, the world is a broken copper coin.

(Translated by Chen Zhen)




荒凉图

老村庄空荡，必须由麦地填满
田头的荒凉，也唯有馒头可解
（馒头，又称为馍馍
外形为半球形或长方体）

半球形馒头是手工的，而长方体形
来自一把老菜刀的臧否
从蒸笼里的水汽中显形出来
那些刀痕早已隐匿

（馒头大小从直径四厘米左右
到直径十五厘米左右）

家常的小馒头不待见
最常见的一笼五只大馒头
五双苦手在上面
撂成了梅花的粗指纹。

（馒头通常以面粉和水
发酵后经过蒸制而成）

怀抱面粉的麦子
来自这乌云低垂的初夏
新鲜麦茬口们
目睹了
无数的雨水在发酵

一个弯腰割麦的瘦老人
和来自安徽的收割机主
并坐在田埂上
咳嗽声此起彼伏
既像是在咳嗽接力
又像是和沉默的田野拔河

此刻，世界就是一枚破铜钱。



*



A Day of Eternal Mourning

On that long and winding morning
It is a freshly cast cement ship
Carrying a boatful of us
Taking him to a funeral home for cremation
(Ask him to listen to the rushing sound of water)
Remember the big iron drawer that stuffed a lot of fathers in
(I wonder if he can dodge the hot iron in the flames)
Sand-like ashes are packed into a small wooden box
(The heat conduction of the plank is slow and persistent)
Snow-white filial piety rod weighed down the colorful portrait
(His collar button fastened as if he wants to scold)
Every shovel in the cemetery is thundering
(Who heard the cry of the earthworms and grass roots being cut off)

He was buried on this day: gold, wood, water, fire and earth
A line of eternal mourning

(Translated by Chen Zhen)




永恸之日

在那个长而弯曲的清晨
是刚刚浇铸好的水泥船
驮着满船的我们
送他去殡仪馆火化
（请他听听哗哗的水声）
要记住那个塞过很多父亲的大铁抽屉
（不知他能否躲开烈焰中滚烫的铁）
砂粒般的骨灰装进小小的木匣
（木板的导热缓慢而持久）
雪白孝棒压住了那祯彩色遗像
（紧系衣领扣的他像是要呵斥）
墓地上的每一锹都在轰然作响
（谁听到了切断的蚯蚓和草根的喊叫）

此日埋葬了他：金木水火土
一行永恸之诗。



*



Pang Yuliang, born in March 1967 in Xinghua, Jiangsu, is a writer, who graduated from Yangzhou Normal University in 1985, and had worked as a countryside teacher and journalist. His novels include Mint, Ugly Child, Some People, The Little Dot’s Elephant Lesson, A Prodigy Named Left Right Left(Series), Check Out My Seventy-Three Changes, We All Love Ding Dasheng; his prose collections include Half a Father Is in Pain, Little Teacher, Naughty Kids Taming the Teacher, The Sadness on Paper; his poetry collections include The Flounder, To My Mother; and his fairy tale collections include The Secret of the Silver Bracelet, An Ant Named Xiao Duo that Escaped 99 Assassinations. Some of his works have been translated overseas. He has won Lu Xun Literature Prize, Rougang Poetry Prize, Chinese Poetry Biennial Prize, Zijin Mountain Literature Prize, Sun Li Prose Biennial Prize, Yangtze River Poetry Prize, etc. He is a member of Chi¬na Writers Association, one of the first Zijin cultural talents of Jiangsu Province and visiting professor at School of Arts of Yangzhou Univer¬sity. He now resides in Jingjiang, Jiangsu.


庞余亮，男，1967 年3 月。江苏兴化人。1985 年毕业于扬州师范学院。做过乡村教师和记者。著有长篇小说《薄荷》《丑孩》《有的人》《小不点的大象课》《神童左右左》( 系列小说)《看我七十三变》《我们都爱丁大圣》，散文集《半个父亲在疼》《小先生》《顽童驯师记》《纸上的忧伤》，诗集《比目鱼》《报母亲大人书》，童话集《银镯子的秘密》《躲过九十九次暗杀的蚂蚁小朵》等。有部分作品译介到海外。获得过鲁迅文学奖、柔刚诗歌年奖、汉语诗歌双年奖、紫金山文学奖、孙犁散文双年奖、扬子江诗学奖等。中国作家协会会员。江苏省首届紫金文化英才。扬州大学文学院客座教授。现居江苏靖江。