Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2013-06-27 page 25
Yi Sha
THANK YOU, FATHER
under mao zedong
we had starry nights
we had vast starry skies
people lifting their heads
one summer night
it was father and i
father told me
about the universe
about a cosmonaut
yuri gagarin
flying in space
my mouth stood open
like a barn door
thank you, father
my heavenly father
in a dark corner
of north korea
measuring 9,600,000
square kilometers
among hundreds of millions
malnourished blockheads
i was the smartest
did not see the future
but i saw space
2003
Tr. MW, 2013
Shenzhou 10 news videos (BBC）
《感謝父親》
伊沙
毛澤東的時代
也有浩瀚的星空
也有星空下
翹首仰望的人民
那個夏夜
是父親和我
他告訴我
太空的存在
和一個叫做
加加林的
天外飛人
叫我嘴巴
張得老大
感謝父親
你就是我的上帝
讓我在九百六十萬
平方公里的北朝鮮
黑暗王國的一角
成為數億
營養不良的傻兒中
最聰明的一個
看不見未來
但看見了太空
2003
Wang Yaping 王亞平 teaching from space
Concentrating on private impressions and conversations in published poems is self-evident for many, maybe for most people who read, write, translate, edit such stuff. But China, and also Taiwan to a certain extent, have put into question art, books, beauty, skills, traditions, language- anything had to serve the Party, and what the Party couldn’t use could not exist. Capitalism does it too, everything that doesn’t pay, that we can’t finance, cannot remain. They get along splendidly, finance and centralized state, Mao and the Mammon. That’s how the modern world was developed.
腳下是隱形的塵土和古蟒的灰燼。/父親拿著鐵棒，問我：“你怕不怕？”/哦，我抬起頭來，獵戶星座在中天閃耀，/空中傳來千秋的微響——/那無聲垂落的，是流星，還是一道道藍色的鞭影？
“Beneath our feet, we couldn’t see through dust and ash, rank growth of old. Father holding his iron staff, asking me: ‘Are you afraid?’ Oh, I raised my head, Orion sparkling right in the middle, space reverberations sounding from eons– falling silently, are those meteors, one blue whiplash after the other?” 流星記事, Meteor Account, or Meteor Accounts, by Zhu Fengming 祝凤鸣 (Oct. 1996). Nick Kaldis just showed me his translation of Meteor Account, from a dozen Chinese poems in the magazine Dirty Goat (#24 February 2011).The quote above is in my own translation, I couldn’t resist. Rank growth of old – 古蟒 or 古莽? Nick Kaldis thinks there might be a misprint. (“古蟒 would refer to a snake known from fossil remains, the Paleopython, while 古莽 refers to rank grass.”). 祝凤鸣，男，1964年生于安徽宿松县… Zhu Fengming (born 1964) is a geologist from Anhui.
《流星記事》
祝鳳鳴
有一次，丘崗夜色正濃，二月還未清醒，
我踏著回家的羊腸小徑，在山坡
白花花的梨樹下，碰見鄰村
淒涼的赤腳醫生，面孔平和。
“剛從李灣回來，那個孩子怕是不行了。”
他說，藥箱在右肩閃著棗紅的微光。
路邊的灌叢越來越黑，細沙嗖嗖——
我們站在風中，談起宅基，柳樹，輪轉的風水。
陰陽和天體在交割，無盡的秘密，使人聲變冷，
“……生死由命。”這時，藍光一閃
話語聲中，一群流星靜靜地布滿天空﹔
還有一次，我和父親走在冬月下
曠野的一切彷彿在錫箔中顫抖。
腳下是隱形的塵土和古蟒的灰燼。
父親拿著鐵棒，問我：“你怕不怕？”
哦，我抬起頭來，獵戶星座在中天閃耀，
空中傳來千秋的微響——
那無聲垂落的，是流星，還是一道道藍色的鞭影？
The existence of space. Of God(s). Yin-yang, fengshui. Existence of wonder. Or the other way, wonder of existence. Outside the Party. Very much among the common people on the other hand, in the countryside, barefoot doctors, and so on, in the rest of Zhu Fengming’s poem.
Yes, 蟒 (mang3) may be a misprint for the homophonous character 莽 (mang3). 古莽之國, the ancient uncultured state. The Book of Liezi.
古莽之國，出《列子周穆王第三》，屬迺古三國。三國者何也？古莽之國、中央之國、阜落之國也。蓋處天地之外、神話之中，事未可徵，史未可考。古莽之地，陰陽不交，寒暑不辨；民不衣不食而多眠，五旬一覺，而以夢為真，真為妄也。
(Wikipedia)Space, spaceflight. A great achievement. “Sister killed her baby ’cause she couldn’t afford to feed it we are sending people to the moon.” Prince, Sign o’ the Times. Really, I think they should have written more about this in the international papers. Yes, it worked, no-one died, Wang Yaping 王亞平 teaching from space, tens of millions watching and listening to her. A great leap, a giant leap, really. Responsibility, great responsibility. How many things could go wrong, in space, for the nation. Planning everything, the very opposite of wu wei. That’s how the famine came. No space for real wondering. Everything organized, all propaganda, all of the nation. They are planning, they have begun to move hundreds of millions more to the cities. Destroying small farms, villages, settlements, temples. Like they destroyed the ancient cities.
They should write about spaceflight, every time. I have to get back to my daughter. Show her the videos from Shenzhou 10.
中国大好き 