Yi Sha
PLAINLY SAID IT’S LIKE THIS
Two years ago at this time
I was in Vermont.
In that month,
I was with poets and writers, all kinds of artists,
everyone doing their stuff.
60 people,
I was the only one waiting for news on the Nobel.
I asked them
why they didn’t care.
They gave me strange looks,
like I was some Chinese bug on the ground.
Oh, we have such a deep Nobel complex,
it’s in our cultural genes.
Plainly said it’s opportunism,
always looking for shortcuts,
no doubt about it.
October 2016
Translated by MW, October 2017
《说穿了便是》
两年前这时候
我在佛蒙特
那个月里
我与来自世界各地的
诗人、作家、艺术家
一起创作
六十个人里
只有我
在关心诺奖的消息
我问他们
为什么不关心
他们用怪怪的眼神
望着我这只中国土鳖
哦，中国人如此深重的
诺奖情结
来自我们的文化基因
说穿了便是
机会主义者
老想走捷径
一锤子定音
2016/10
Yi Sha
光
I remember
three years ago
in Vermont,
Austrian sinologist Martin Winter told me
he didn’t agree
when I translated “light” into “guangming” 光明,
bright light.
“Light is just light”, he gave no reason.
I thought he didn’t like
the false pathos from the Mao era,
using big words.
Only just now
I see the light!
光 guang is immediate experience,
if you add 明 ming, meaning bright
the language is one step removed.
A colloquial poetry eagle
doesn’t pick up second-hand words.
October 2017
Translated by MW, Oct. 2017
《light》
伊沙
我记得
三年前
在佛蒙特
奥地利汉学家
维马丁说
他不赞同
把英语中的light
译成中文的＂光明＂
＂光就是光＂
他没说理由
我理解成
他不喜欢
这来自毛时代的
假大空中文
如今
三年过去了
就在刚才
我恍然大悟
＂光＂是第一现场语言
加个＂明＂
就退到了第二现场
对于后者
口语鹰是不屑叼走食用的
(10月第16首，总第9168首)
Yi Sha
LATE REVENGE
we have a late poet and critic
in his many writings
he also named my greatest sin:
after 1989,
the Third Generation of elite poets –
some went to prison
some went into business
some had stopped writing
hence my sudden rise
this kind of thinking is interesting
let me use it on Charles Bukowski
from 1960 to 62
China was stuck in extreme misery
people were starving
he didn’t care if we starved to death
kept slurping cheap wine
kept writing good poems
and became famous
October 2017
Translated by MW, October 2017
《秋后算账》
伊沙
一位死去的诗人、诗评家
在其洋洋万字的遗文中
给我罗致的罪名是
1989年后
趁第三代精英诗人
坐牢的坐牢
下海的下海
罢笔的罢笔
而崛起
这种思维很有意思
我想拿来一用
给美国诗人布考斯基 罗致一项罪名
1960－1962年 趁中国人民在水深火热中
忍饥挨饿
不顾我们死活
喝了好多烂酒
写了好多好诗
而崛起
2017/10
Yi Sha’s new book has come out in Chinese and German! Click here!
中国大好き 