Nobody Told Me - Jidi Majia / 吉狄马加

Jidi Majia / 吉狄马加






Nobody Told Me


—in answer to Eugenio Montale, ①
because he met with circumstances

Like mine, but he had only a long spoon with him.
Biashylazzi ② didn’t tell me
If lavish entertainments also await me
Along the road for sending off souls.
Some people say: just in case they do,
Each soul should take along a spoon.
As for me, I have two wooden spoons,
One with a handle quite long, one quite short,
But at such gatherings, it often happens
A spoon neither long nor short is needed
For ladling a morsel into a diner’s mouth.
I must live with the fact—such a spoon’s not mine.

① Eugenio Montale (1896—1981) was one of Italy’s
greatest 20th century poets.
② Biashylazzi was an ancient sage of the Yi people
who is said to have invented their writing system.

(Translated by Denis Mair)






没有告诉我


——答诗人埃乌杰尼奥• 蒙塔莱，①
因他有过同样的境遇，他当时只有长勺。

比阿什拉则，②
没有告诉我，
在灵魂被送走的路上，
是否还有被款待的机会。
有人说无论结果怎样，
你都要带上自己的木勺。
我有两把木勺，
一把是最长的，还有一把是最短的，
但这样的聚会却经常是
不长不短的木勺，
才能让赴宴者舀到食物，
但是我没有，这是一个问题。

①埃乌杰尼奥• 蒙塔莱（1896—1981），20 世
纪意大利著名诗人。
②阿什拉则，彝族历史上最著名的祭司和文字传
承掌握者，以超度和送魂闻名。

***





Jidi Majia is a representative figure among minority poets in China while also having broad influence as an international poet. His poetry has been translated into over 20 languages and published for distribution in almost 30 countries and regions. He has been honored with the Third China Poetry Prize, Guo Moruo Literature Prize, Zhuang Zhongwen Literary Prize, Sholokhov Memorial Prize, Rou Gang Literary Prize, the “China Poetic Spirit Award” of International Chinese P. E. N., the Mkhiva International Humanitarian Award of South Africa, the 2016 European Poetry and Art Homer Award, the Poetry Prize awarded by the Romanian magazine Contemporary People, the 2017 Bucharest Poetry Prize, the 2017 Ianicius Prize of Poland and Lifetime Achievement Award of Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize of Cambridge. Since 2007 he has founded a series of poetry events: Qinghai International Poetry Festival, Qinghai Poets Tent Forum, Xichang Qionghai Lake Poets Week and Chengdu International Poetry Week. He currently serves as Vice President and Member of Secretariat of China Writers Association.


吉狄马加，中国当代著名少数民族代表性诗人，同时也是一位具有广泛影响的国际性诗人，其诗歌已被翻译成二十多种文字，在近三十个国家或地区出版发行。曾获中国第三届诗歌奖、郭沫若文学奖荣誉奖、庄重文文学奖、肖洛霍夫文学纪念奖、柔刚诗歌成就奖、国际华人诗人笔会“中国诗魂奖”、南非姆基瓦人道主义奖、欧洲诗歌与艺术荷马奖、罗马尼亚《当代人》杂志卓越诗人奖、布加勒斯特城市诗歌奖、波兰雅尼茨基文学奖、剑桥徐志摩诗歌节银柳叶诗歌终身成就奖。创办青海湖国际诗歌节、青海国际诗人帐篷圆桌会议、凉山西昌邛海国际诗歌周以及成都国际诗歌周，现任中国作家协会副主席、书记处书记。