Du Xiaowang
RELEASED
A book manuscript of 360,000 characters
is relased with him,
he has served out his sentence.
He runs into many friends from before,
a wall forms around him.
Strangely,
the people who envy him
are windows with bars.
On the street people walk in a hurry,
in their looks they carry a prison.
Translated by MW in July 2020
A picture of Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai is shown on a placard beside another bookseller, Lam Wing-kee, who criticized Gui’s prison sentence announced by China. Kin Cheung/Associated Press/File 2016/Associated Press
SICK
How many dead now, how many infected?
How many countries?
Is it near us, should we buy masks?
What should we do?
Meanwhile there are other news.
China sentences Hong Kong bookseller to 10 years in prison.
China kidnaps Hong Kong bookseller from Thailand.
China kidnaps whole bookstore.
Five employees.
China makes them confess on TV.
Only one escapes, after years.
Only one talks.
I have seen him in Frankfurt.
He didn’t have a book.
He didn’t have a book stand.
He was out on the square, in the open
on a makeshift platform.
He was very much alone,
although people helped him.
I hope he can have enough peace
to publish a book about his captivity.
I want to see it in every bookstore.
One book for each of them!
Gui Minhai, the bookstore owner, he was sentenced now
for providing intelligence abroad.
How could he do that?
He has been in prison for years,
in secret detention.
He is Swedish, has a Swedish passport.
They let him out briefly
and snatched him again from a train.
He was with Swedish diplomats on his way
to the Swedish embassy.
Must have talked fast then, revealing so many secrets
there on that train, dangerous secrets.
Now they say he says
he wants no foreign passport in prison.
He applied to restore his passport, they say.
They say he does not wish to appeal.
China sentences Hong Kong bookseller.
I guess China
is the sick man of China.
MW February 2020
Yao Feng
KOLLEGE
ein gedicht
hält keinen panzer auf
aber ein panzerfahrer
schreibt vielleicht ein gedicht
er springt aus seinem eisenhaufen
sitzt unter bäumen
versinkt in gedanken
schreibt solche sätze:
frühling ist noch nicht da
ein paar vögel
landen auf einer grünen kanone
und zwitschern
Übersetzt von MW am 31. März 2016
Yao Feng
COMRADE
poetry
won’t stop a tank
but could make a poet
out of the driver
he jumps from his heap of iron
sits down under a tree
gets lost in thought
writes down such lines:
spring has not yet arrived
a few birds
land on a green cannon
twittering
Tr. MW, March 2016
Ma Fei
A CONSOLATION FOR THE LATE MR. ZHANG, MY FORMER TEACHER
In junior high,
there was a character,
I wrote it wrong
again and again,
every time
we had a dictation.
Now I can write it,
I’ll write it for you:
“rain” on the top,
“worms” down at the left,
as in “insects and worms”.
“Inside” at the right,
like “outside and inside”.
I can write it correctly
and make a phrase:
“fog-like haze”.
I can make sentences with “haze”,
many sentences.
Tr. MW, April 2015
Ma Fei
FÜR HERRN LEHRER ZHANG IM HIMMEL ZUM TROST
in der mittelschule
gab es ein zeichen,
das schrieb ich immer falsch.
immer wieder,
jedesmal
beim diktat.
aber jetzt kann ich es schreiben.
ich schreib es dir vor:
oben kommt “regen”,
unten links “würmer”,
wie “insekten und würmer”.
unten rechts “innen”,
wie in “außen und innen”.
und nicht nur das,
ich kann das zeichen gebrauchen:
dunstglocke.
ich kann auch sätze mit “dunst” bilden,
ganz viele sätze.
Übers. v. MW, April 2015
