The Other - Zou Shengnian / 邹 胜 念

Zou Shengnian / 邹 胜 念





The Other

When language fails, the other … is born.
The night breeze blows to the other side of silence
– to a riverbank, where each tree is another tree,
branches shifting red and gold, hollowing out
the sun’s afterglow, until the water sinks into a drifting dusk.
I am walking. The night breeze delivers me to the edge
of time, where the air is filled with half-forgotten kisses,
like ripples spreading out across the water,
erased by a sudden rain.
Perhaps there was no past.
The singers and the drummers on the far shore, other people.
In weary delight, I sleep inside your body, accepting the freedom of captivity –
hand in hand and heart in heart,
one boat rising and falling inside another.
There are so many reasons to miss you.
But forgetting is more worthy of praise. All meaning
gathers at the cliff’s edge – and breaks free,
a great white wave of words,
unbroken, but never understood.

(Translated by Will Spence)




另外的……

话说不清楚时，另外的……就会诞生。
晚风吹向无言的对立面，
河堤上，所有的树都是另外的树，
那些枝蔓颤动着，伸进金色与红色之间
将余晖的心一点一点掏空，直至绵延
江水 陷入一种悬浮、流动的晦暗。
我在散步。晚风轻易将我吹至时间的尽头。
空气里，全是熟悉而又模糊的吻，
像江面扩散的涟漪，正被突袭的大雨取消。
也许，过往并不存在。
唱歌的人，在对岸打手鼓的人，都是另外的人。
在一种类似疲倦的兴奋中，我恍若睡在你的身体里，
并接受围困的自由——
手在手里，心在心里，一条船在另一条船里沉浮。
想你的理由无数。但忘却更值得颂赞，
所有的意义，流水般积聚于悬崖
——一道瀑布奔泻，如虎；
一串串白浪如话，连贯，却怎么也讲不清楚。


*


Lighting the Sky Lantern *

I have seen that kind of love.
The Tiger’s Mouth of a man’s hand,
clutching the night’s throat,
kissing it full on –
Women, mad like snakes.
Rain. Drops drip
along the spider’s path and break into fragments of feeling:
like a river that never ran its course, like a tear that grew feet.
I have seen the sky lantern being lit – a grand, majestic gesture.
On the far-off auction block he bid for a jade bracelet ,
then bid again and kept bidding.
He conquered me with a single gesture (torture).
Like a night without end yet each darker than the last,
a jade-green annihilation, his final bid,
his gift of favour and glory.
I was mad as a snake.
I was a berry on his tongue, rotting from the pit outwards.
And the jade, and more than jade
the weight of splendour, the waste of it.
With the price he presses down, in this noisy
auction house, he left them to their silence,
their solitude.
He left every mute, gleaming treasure to fall into the tyranny of love.

(Translated by Will Spence)

*An old auctioning practice – to light a sky lantern in your box during an auction was to declare: whatever is offered, at whatever price, I will buy it. A form of ancient torture – a prisoner was stripped naked, wrapped in cloth and soaked in oil. At night he was hung upside down from a tall wooden pole, and his feet were set alight so the flames burned downward through his body.




点天灯*

我见过那样的爱。
男人的虎口，掐住夜晚的脖子
直直吻上去……女人们，蛇一样
疯狂雨水，雨水之外的滴答
顺着蜘蛛爬过的痕迹，折曲在
无数段感情里，像进化未果的河，
像长出足的泪。
我见过点天灯，
那是一种气宇轩昂的手势。
在远远的竞拍台上，他为了一只
玉镯开价。一直加价。
他征服我，仅凭一个手势（酷刑）。
像无休止的夜，永远比上一个夜更黑，
像玉制的碧绿的毁灭，他用至高无上的出价，
赐我宠爱与荣耀。
我像蛇一样疯狂。
我像一颗莓果，蜷缩在他舌床，
从核开始溃烂。
而玉，更多玉之外的珍贵与挥霍……
和被他压下的价格，在这喧闹的竞
拍场 他任由它们囚困与孤寂
他任由一切哑默光泽的宝物
——坠入爱的独断

* 点天灯：一种拍卖行为。在竞拍者的包厢天花板上挂 一盏灯，意思是无论这一轮卖的是什么东西，出到什么 价，都由点天灯的人来出钱买下。也是一种古代酷刑：把犯人扒光衣服，用麻布包裹，再 放进油缸里浸泡，入夜后，将他头下脚上拴在一根挺高 的木杆上，从脚上点燃。





***

Zou Shengnian, a poet whose works have appeared in People’s Literature, Poetry Journal, October, Zhongshan, Yangtze River Poetry Journal, among others. She participated in the 40th Youth Poetry Conference organized by Poetry Journal. She has been awarded the Poetry Journal Chen Zi’ang Poetry Award Youth Poet Prize, the Yangtze River Annual Youth Poet Award, the Purple Mountain Literature Award, the Li Bai Poetry Award New Talent Prize, and the Youth Literature Award, among others. Her poetry collection Catching the Divine Bird was selected as one of “China Poetry Net’s Top Ten Poetry Collections of 2024”.


邹胜念，诗人，作品见于《人民文学》《诗刊》《十月》《上 海文学》等。参加《诗刊》社第四十届青春诗会。曾获《诗 刊》陈子昂诗歌奖年度青年诗人奖、扬子江年度青年诗人奖、 紫金山文学奖、李白诗歌奖新锐奖，青春文学奖等。诗集《捕 捉神鸟》入选“中国诗歌网2024 年度十佳诗集”。