Posts Tagged ‘exploitation’

TO MY COUNTRY

9月 13, 2013

Photo0012

Zheng Xiaoqiong
TO MY COUNTRY

cannot abandon this country, five thousand years of meager creeks and cold peaks
five thousand years having a band of whores erecting gateways for memory
its people industrious, intelligent, brave
and used by these whores, pressed to their last drop of blood
cannot abandon this country, connected from birth inseparably
my tears becoming one of its rivers, drinking its juices
slurping its blood, look at these whores telling lies as their trade
poets are used to the emperor’s new clothes, no-one plays a small child
I cannot abandon this country, nor am I having these whores banish me
getting angry is fruitless, I’d rather become another Sisyphus
and even for dying, it is on its earth where I am going to sleep

Tr. MW, Sept. 2013

郑小琼
《给祖国》

不能放下这个国度，它五千年的水瘦山寒
五千年它让一群婊子们立满了牌坊
它的人民勤劳、勇敢、智慧
也被这些婊子们利用，柞尽了最后一滴血
不能放下这个国度，出生就注定与它不能解除关系
我的哭泣将会成为它的一条河流，喝着它的汁
饮着它的血，看婊子们对它撒谎成性
习惯了皇帝的新装，诗人们也不肯做一次小孩
不能放下这个国度，无论是遗弃或者被婊子们放逐
我的血液里仍将有爱，有着因爱而生成的愤怒
这愤怒注定是徒劳，我宁愿再做一个西西弗斯
哪怕就是死去，我也要在它的土地上安眠

Zheng Xiaoqiong MUTE 《喑哑》

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发表在 September 2013, Translations | Leave a Comment »

BIRDS OF PASSAGE

2月 13, 2013

Happy year of the snake! How are you doing? I have just finished translating an essay on bonsais in jail. From Chinese into German. Spring in a Prison Cell, by Shi Mingde (Shih Ming-te) 施明德, written in August 1989. He was Taiwan’s Liu Xiaobo. Released in the early 1990s, after 25 years in jail. Nearly executed in 1980 after organizing the Formosa protests. Arrested again in 1997, campaigning for direct presidential elections. Organized protests against corruption in 2006.
His older brother Shi Mingzheng died in a hunger strike in August 1988.

If you feel like it, please tell me how you like the following poem. Or the translation. Shorter words are easier to fit in a rhythm.

Have a good year!

Martin

 

Shi Mingzheng (1982)

BIRDS OF PASSAGE

Yes, we are September birds, arriving
on this western pacific island, panting;
marveling at the island’s beauty;
riding the breeze, changing into the foam, soaring over Green Island’s blue skies

We have wings to adore.
We don’t need passports or border controls.
We don’t have professions or housing,
picking grain anywhere, sleeping where we can rest.

We don’t have jails, no informing and framing,
no scaffolds or labor camps, no exploitation.
We eat what we find, at most we have children exploiting their parents.
We don’t have assassinations.

And so we don’t have police and informers.
We don’t have thugs performing as agents.
We have the freedom you people are craving, but if you catch us
We end up on sticks for your peace-loving teeth.

Tr. MW, Feb. 2013

施明正 (1982)

候鳥

是的，我們是九月的候鳥到達
西太平洋的孤島，我們喘息
我們羨慕島嶼的美麗風光
我們駕著和風，化成浪花，在綠島的藍空翻騰

我們長著令人羨慕的翅膀
我們不必護照，我們隨時翻騰人造的國境
我們沒有職業，沒有房屋
可是到處是糧，隨地是家

我們沒有牢獄，沒有告密、誣告
沒有死刑、勞役、剝削
我們自找自吃，頂多只在兒時剝削過雙親的口糧
當然，我們也沒有暗殺

因此我們也就沒有線民與警察
更沒有冒充特務的流氓
我們雖有人類羨慕的自由，可是佈著陷阱
把我們考成一串鳥仔疤的，竟是高呼自由與和平的人

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发表在 February 2013, Translations, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »