Solitary Peak - Chen Xianfa / 陈先发

Chen Xianfa / 陈先发




SOLITARY PEAK

The solitary peak spins alone, at the top of the top whipped
by our everyday existence.
There is a motionless table
spread over with everything it has witnessed and is always
excluded from.

What it has experienced, is level with our knees.
Its color is hidden in sunset clouds.
It is named the Solitary Peak,
but in fact one can't even take one step on it.

A sloppy breakfast is ordered from outside the walls,
to catch up with the lesson that has already been lost.
It is called the Solitary Peak,
but as a matter of fact there is no spring scenery for one to see.

The continental shelf subsides in my wine cup.
The ripples in it conceal fears.
The tabletop claims it is solitude that makes the peak a peak,
but in reality it is a lonely man, with no space for him to turn around.

Like language adhering to a blank sheet of paper.
In truth, the whipping top has an overlarge head,
and yet cannot forgo its whiteness altogether.
Tonight I stayed in the capital. One man going on a long
journey is not in a position
to articulate the difficulty of being invisible.

(Translated by Li Hai)




孤 峰

孤峰独自旋转，在我们每日鞭打的
陀螺之上。
有一张桌子始终不动
铺着它目睹又一直被拒之于外的一切。

其历练，平行于我们的膝盖。
其颜色掩之于晚霞。
称之曰孤峰，
实则不能跨出这一步。

向墙外唤来邋遢的早餐，
为了早已丧失的这一课。
呼之为孤峰，
实则已无春色可看。

大陆架在我的酒杯中退去。
荡漾掩蔽着惶恐。
桌面说峰在其孤
其实是一个人，连转身都不可能。

像语言附着于一张白纸。
其实头颅过大，
又无法尽废其白。
今夜我在京城。一个人远行无以
表达隐身之难



***



Chen Xianfa, a leading contemporary poet in China, is the deputy director of Poetry Committee of the Chinese Writers Association and the chairman of Anhui Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Chen was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province in October, 1967. He graduated from Fudan University in 1989. He has published dozens of books of poetry, which include Writing Inscriptions with a Pure Heart, Poems in Nines (in both Chinese and English versions), Selected Poems by Chen Xianfa, The Problem of Raising Cranes (bilingual version), Boulders as a Crown, as well as several collection of essays such as Notes on Black Pond Dam (a series) and Reflections on the Limit of Knowledge in Old Age. He has received dozens of poetry prizes, including Lu Xun Literature Prize, Chinese Literature Media Award, the October Poetry Prize, the Silver Willow Leaf Award awarded by the University of Cambridge, Translation Award of the 2022 Spring Contest hosted by Columbia University. His works have been translated into English, French, Russian, Spanish, Greek, Polish and other languages.


陈先发，中国当代代表性诗人之一，现任中国作家协 会诗歌委员会副主任、安徽省文联主席。1967 年１1 月生 于安徽桐城，1989 年毕业于复旦大学。主要著作有诗集《写 碑之心》《九章》（中、英文版）、《陈先发诗选》《养 鹤问题》（中英文版）、《巨石为冠》，随笔集《黑池坝 笔记》（系列）、《白头知匮集》等二十余部。曾获鲁迅 文学奖，华语文学传媒大奖，十月文学奖，英国剑桥大学 银柳叶奖，美国哥伦比亚大学2022 春季大赛翻译大奖等国 内外数十种文学奖项。作品已被译成英文、法文、俄文、 西班牙文、希腊文、波兰文等多种文字传播。