Posts Tagged ‘emperors’

BEGEGNUNG IM CHATROOM – 杨宗泽 Yang Zongze

2月 26, 2023

Yang Zongze
BEGEGNUNG IM CHATROOM

Im Chatroom von Netease
treff ich eine “kaiserliche Dame”.
Ihre hocherhobene Art
ist als säße der Kaiser
des Reiches der Qing
noch in der Halle der Höchsten Harmonie
und sähe Eingaben durch.

Ich schreib eine Frage:
“Wie geht es dem Jadekörper der Dame?”
Wer hätt es gedacht, sie antwortet gleich:
“Es ist spät, zieh er sich kniend zurück.”

Übersetzt von MW im Februar 2023

伊沙推荐:杨宗泽,我早知道,十年前还见过一面,但我一直以为他只是一位诗译者,不知道他还是诗人,直到前些日子他请我给他即将出版的诗集写几句话。聊天室,已经不存在了,但不影响本诗的存在,这就是写好了。

​徐江点评《新诗典》杨宗泽《聊天室奇遇》:业已消失了的虚拟生活,不能因为其消失,就抹去其存在的印迹,本诗是一张存照。

 

 

EMPRESS DOWAGER TRUMP – 莫高 Mo Gao

11月 15, 2020

picture by 邢昊 Xing Hao, click on the image for more

Mo Gao
EMPRESS DOWAGER TRUMP

When he said
“America first!“,
when he said
“No-one understands better than I“,
when he said
“Drink disinfectants to cure the virus!“;
when he withdrew from even more groups and assemblies,
when he put even more business and people from China
on sanctions lists;
I saw a shadow behind him,
of a dowager empress from the Qing dynasty.
I was thinking,
shouldn’t I remind folks in America,
but
wouldn’t they think I had idle concerns?

8/15/20
Translated by MW, November 2020

特朗普太后
莫高

当他说
“美国优先”
当他说
“没人比我更懂”
当他说
“喝消毒液可以治病”
当他宣布退出更多的群
当他把更多中国人和中国公司
纳入制裁名单
我在他身上看到
清朝一个太后的影子
我在想
要不要提醒一下美国人民
那么
他们会不会觉得我操空心

2020.8.15

picture by 邢昊 Xing Hao, click on the image for more

picture by 邢昊 Xing Hao, click on the image for more

HÄUPTLINGSKINDER – 李勋阳

1月 30, 2020

Li Xunyang
HÄUPTLINGSKINDER

Heute ist der 138. Geburtstag
des modernen Autors Lu Xun.
Eine ehemalige Schülerin
schreibt unter ein diesbezügliches Posting
„Heute ist auch der Geburtstag
des Kaisers Qian Long.“
Ich frag überhaupt nicht höflich:
„Ein Kaiser von deinem örtlichen Häuptling
und du gedenkst seines Geburtstags
wofür
wofür
wofür?“

Ich hör alle eintausendvierhundert fruchtbare Flecken
in meiner Provinz
widerhallen
von dieser Frage.

Übersetzt von MW im Jänner 2020

 

 

OCTOBER 1

10月 1, 2019

OCTOBER 1

today is october 1
nothing special in austria
i sit in the sun on our balcony
it’s very warm
seventy years ago
my parents were very young
they didn’t know each other
my mother was born in 1942
my father in 1940
so they were very small school kids
poor families
my mother had it a little better
in the countryside by the railway
as far as i heard
her father was alive
my father’s father didn’t come back
from the war
many many many many
people never came back
many children too
from the camps
from the ruins
but i think by 1949
my parents were both in school
they were relatively lucky
austria was relatively lucky
after the war
october 1 or october 1st
is no special day in austria
we had an election two days ago
so people talk about that
i think about seventy years ago
because of china’s national day
they have another one in taiwan
on october 10
it commemorates the revolution
in 1911 in china, in wuhan
in all of china eventually
no more emperors
but not in taiwan, not on taiwan
taiwan was under japan
no revolution
although people tried, maybe not that year
now taiwan has it’s national day
on october 10
they’ve had it this way since 1949
maybe since 1945
but since 1949 they are the only ones
with that national day
that comes from china in 1911
or maybe not exactly
did they change their national day
in 1949 right away?
maybe not
in beijing they have the greatest parade
since 1949 maybe
yes, many soldiers, tanks
school kids en masse, probably
forming words, numbers, flowers
great fireworks
i have just finished steven king’s new novel
the institute
i remember when someone interviewed ernst jandl
great austrian poet who died in 2000
it was in his apartment in vienna
he was a school teacher
anyway the reporter was rather surprised
jandl told him he had just bought a novel by stephen king
no, nothing more highbrow
in english, i think
jandl taught english and german
he was a pow in england
his unit had succeeded
in surrendering to the british
so they were lucky, those who survived
anyway jandl told the reporter
no, he didn’t need to read
highbrow stuff all the time
he wanted to write democratic poetry
anyway
not too different from erich fried
in this respect
they met in england
fried had fled from the nazis in 1938
out of vienna
he was not much older than jandl
almost the same age
after the war he was mostly in germany
jandl was in vienna
what was i talking about, stephen king
children not coming back
most of the children the book is about
the institute
most don’t come back
almost all of them don’t
over many years
thousands
in several countries
and there is this messianic thing
about this horrible institution
described in the novel
i am sorry guess i should use another word
most children murdered were jewish
in austria and so on
pointed out as jews
and messias is jewish
like everything in the bible of course
the institute is supposed to save the world
at the cost of killing children
and their parents
and this takes place now under trump
although he’s hardly mentioned
and not important
but they have existed since after the war
these institutes
in the novel
no-one ever came back
they saved the world, they said
not the children, of course
there is also another handmaid’s tale
margaret atwood
the testaments
haven’t read it yet
but i bought it
i loved the first one
the handmaid’s tale
it was a long time ago
i read it in english
when did it come out, 30 years ago?
maybe more
now they have the tv series
suddenly these two or three years
everyone talks about it
under trump and so on
although they are not that important
these strongmen
although many people are incarcerated
because of them
in many countries
including children
we are living in dystopian times
end of the world
we are lucky in austria
most of us are, relatively
it’s a very warm day
big demonstrations last friday
climate strike
many children, school children
more children than workers

so whether today
when you read this
is a special day for you
or not

have a good day

 

MW October 1st 2019

 

Photo by Johannes Fiederling

 

 

 


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