How You Look Like - Xu Fang / 徐 芳

Xu Fang / 徐 芳





How You Look Like

—To an anti-epidemic female nurse who took off the mask to rest but was unaware of the impresses on the face

In our lives, there are moments
that are like the impresses of a mask
similar to the gullies suddenly bursting out
and then slowly rebounding to nothingness
as usual, but you didn’t even see them at all
Strong but not huge in form, full of love but not pretentious
just like birds flying away
like flowers blooming
like still water flowing through
like a breeze blowing gently…

The warm embrace of spring and
the poetry of the sea and the distance
are how you look like at this moment
The impresses under pressure
are like frightening aphorisms
or like the numerous warm
fingerprints angels have left behind
that are brimmed with human breath —
Frankly, you don’t have a pretty face
but the smile on it is as simple as a baby
that has deeply engraved our memory
and magically turned into the God’s painful expression

However, you’re like your kind indeed
each of you, together, has played
a role in taking care of this world —
Then, you yourself are completely
surrounded by various dangers
Probably, what will test you is not the degree
to which you can withstand the blow
but the attitude of going beyond the limit:
Discover shock with shock
Save life with life
You saw it, but not just so when you saw it
You heard it, but not just so when you heard it
Maybe, this is youth
maybe, this is the vicissitudes of life
at least, this is how you look like —

(Translated by Zhou Wenbiao)






你的样子

——写给脱下口罩休息，满脸勒痕却不自知的抗疫女护士

在我们的生活里
有的瞬间就像口罩的勒痕
突然冲出一道道沟壑
就像慢回弹太空的平淡
如初，可你什么也看不见
强而不壮，爱而不装
就像鸟儿飞走了
像花儿开过了
像静水流过了
像一阵微风轻轻吹过了……

这春暖花开的大地怀抱
和面向大海的诗与远方
就是你此刻的样子
在压力下的勒痕
像惊惧的警句
或者是天使密密麻麻留下
千万个温暖的指印
却带有了人间的气息——
看你这张实在说不上美丽的脸
而单纯如婴儿的笑意
也曾深深刻下了我们的记忆
并幻化于上苍痛苦的表情中

可你和你们一样
你们每一个，都一起扮演了
共同护理世界的角色——
然后，自身完完全全地
被各种危险包围了
可能要考验你的
不是能够承受打击的程度
而是超越极限的态度：
用震撼来发现震撼
以生命来救助生命
看见了，并不只当看见
听见了，也并不只当听见
也许这就是青春
也许这也就是沧桑
至少是你的样子吧——




***




Xu Fang, born in Shanghai in 1962, began publishing in 1982. She is one of the founders of Xia Yu Poetry Club of East China Normal University and used to be the editor-in-chief and instructor of Xia Yu Poetry Club. She joined the Shanghai Writers’ Association in 1984 and the Chinese Writers’ Association in 2000, currently working as a senior editor at the “Jiefang Daily” and chief editor of the show of “Interview with Xu Fang”. She has published more than ten volumes of works such as “Selected Poems of Xu Fang”. Some of her poems have been selected into nearly 100 anthologies and dictionaries, including “The Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese New Poetry”, “The Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Poetesses”, “The Anthology of Contemporary College Students in China”, “A Selection of Contemporary Campus Poems in China”, “ Selected Poems of the Academy”, “The Anthology of the Third Generation of Chinese Poets’ Exploring Poems”, “Twenty-five Years of Obscure Poetry”, “20 Years of Selected Works of New Period Literature”, “Anthology of the Poetry Magazine on the 60th Anniversary of its Publication”, “Annual Selection of Chinese Poetry”, “The Best Chinese Poetry in the 21st Century, 2000–2011”, “The Anthology of Chinese Poetry 2011”, “Selected Chinese Poetry in 2012”, “Chinese Poetry List”, “China’s Best Poetry in the 21st Century”.The Shanghai Writers’ Association once held a seminar on Xu Fang’s poetry. She won the award of the first “Poet of the Year” (2011). Her collection of essays “She Said: Hello” won the “Fifth National Bing Xin Prose Award”. In 2015, she gave a lecture on Chinese new poetry at Turin University, Italy. She has won “The China News Award” and “The Shanghai News Award” many times. There are about forty monographs on the creation of her poetry and prose, part of which have been translated into foreign languages.


徐芳，1962 年生于上海。1982 年开始发表作品，为华东师大夏雨诗社创始人之一，曾任夏雨诗社主编和指导老师。1984 年加入上海市作家协会，2000 年加入中国作家协会。现供职于《解放日报》，任高级编辑和《徐芳访谈》主编。著有《徐芳诗选》等十余册个人作品集，诗作还被编入《中国当代新诗大词典》、《中国当代女诗人诗选》、《中国当代大学生诗选》、《中国当代校园诗歌选萃》、《学院诗选》、《中国第三代诗人探索诗选》、《朦胧诗二十五年》、《新时期文学二十年精选》、《< 诗刊> 创刊60 周年诗选》、《中国诗歌年选》、《21 世纪中国最佳诗歌2000-2011》、《2011 年度中国诗歌选本》、《2012 年中国诗歌精选》、《中国诗歌排行榜》、《21 世纪中国最佳诗歌》等近百本选集和辞典中。上海作协曾召开徐芳诗歌作品研讨会，获首届“诗探索·中国年度诗人”奖（2011 年），散文集《她说: 您好!》获第五届全国冰心散文奖等。2015 年，在意大利都灵大学做中国新诗讲座，曾获中国新闻奖、上海新闻奖多次。约有四十多篇评论徐芳诗歌散文创作的专题论文，有部分诗歌和散文作品被译介。