Half of life is spent facing the dark,

If I do not turn on the lamp…

Hai Nan is a writer, poet and painter. She graduated from the Postgraduate Class in Literary Theory jointly run by Lu Xun Academy of Literature and Beijing Normal University. She has authored more than 90 books spanning cross-genre collections, full-length novel collections, prose anthologies and poetry volumes. Many of her works have been translated into foreign languages and published both at home and overseas. Her accolades include the Liu Li’an Poetry Prize, the Honorary Award for China’s Top Ten Women Poets of the New Era, Chinese Women’s Literature Award, Yangtze River Poetry Award, China Long Poem Prize, Top Ten Poetry Collections Award from China Poetry Network, the 6th Lu Xun Literature Prize (Poetry Category), Yang Sheng’an Literature Award, Ouyang Shan Literature Award, among others. She currently resides in Kunming, Yunnan Province.

海男，作家，诗人，画家。毕业于鲁迅文学院•北京师范大学文艺理论研究生班。著有跨文本写作集、长篇小说集、散文集、诗歌集九十多部。有多部作品已被翻译成册，远渡海内外。曾获刘丽安诗歌奖、中国新时期十大女诗人殊荣奖、中国女性文学奖、扬子江诗歌奖、中国长诗奖、中国诗歌网十大诗集奖、第六届鲁迅文学奖（诗歌奖），杨升庵文学奖，欧阳山文学奖等。现居云南昆明。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

Night Is the Noblest Ode

Half of life is spent facing the dark, if I do not turn on the lamp

I sit alone in the corner, the world stretches vast and colourful

yet I favour a cramped little space instead

like a village woman husking corn

I set no storm alert for the sky above my head

should a downpour break loose, I will dash outdoors

to fetch the winnowing basket left in the yard

filled with peas nearly dried in the sun

if the mood takes me, I let the rain drench me thoroughly

before hurrying back home, at that moment, my flesh

shake off all muddle and confusion. A woman cleansed by rain

no longer stands in defiance against men

 

when rural women hold out their hands

I catch sight not only of silver bangles upon their wrists

 

I also behold the night rising together with their adobe houses

night itself is the noblest ode of all

黑夜是一场最高贵的礼赞

有一半时间要面对黑夜，如果不开灯

就独自坐角隅，人间辽阔缤纷

我更喜欢在一个窄小的空间

像村庄里的妇女剥着玉米

没有给自己制造天空中的暴雨预警

如果来一场暴雨，我会跑出去

收回院子里的簸箕，里边有快晒干的

豌豆。如果来了兴致就淋一场暴雨

再跑回来，这时候你的身体

不再混沌。被暴雨洗礼过的女人

不再与男人抵抗。乡间妇女们

伸出手时，我除了看见银器的镯子

 

也会看见她们身边的黑夜随同土坯房

升起的黑夜是一场最高贵的礼赞

***

The Longest Bond

The longest bond is the one you share with yourself

through every ticking second, as water clings to the far shore

with the world, amid the chasm between reality and illusion

keep imagination alive and hold fast to courage, when we grow old

and they grow old too, should we fall in love once more

we must first sprout new shoots from withered branches

sail past these grey-blue clouds to take flight

you must first cradle waves in your palms

wipe the stinging wounds forged by resolve from wheat awns

the stars will never alter the primal code woven into you and me

a snow leopard from the forest steps out of the spring grove

watching us light pine twigs out on the wilderness

 

We drift off to sleep within eroded time

only to be roused again by the frolicking squirrels and mandarin fish

最长久的关系

最长久的关系：与自我

在分秒时间中像水和彼岸的厮守

与世界在现实和幻境的距离深处

保持想象力和勇气，当我们老了

他们老了，再爱上谁

首先要从枯枝重新发芽

移过这片灰蓝色云层

要想飞起来先要从手里托起波浪

要从麦芒中擦干净被激励的伤痕

星辰永不改变你我的原始密码

森林中的雪豹走出春天的丛林

看着我们在荒野中点燃松枝

 

我们躺在被腐蚀的时间中睡过去

又被松鼠鳜鱼的游戏再次唤醒

***

I Stand Lost in Thought on the Balcony

I linger lost in thought on the balcony, spotting a few stray feathers

left behind by little birds, at the same time I notice my own strands of hair

stuck to the floor tiles damp from rain. A renovation worker

passes by a few meters away, carrying a lunchbox slung in a plastic bag

what an utterly silent noon, basking in sunlight

the shadow cast by my profile sinks deep into my inner self

just as construction labourers can only work indoors

on gloomy days. Will the long spell of spring rains come soon enough?

Then the sun, like pure gold will be hidden safe

within my heart. An ocean surges upon this balcony

rippling the water inside my drinking cup, curved arcs of flight

keep streaking past the nest tucked mid-air

 

While I drift away in reverie out here

the red-billed gulls beat trembling wings, bound for Siberia

我坐在露台上发呆

我坐在露台上发呆，看见几根

小鸟留下的羽毛，也同时发现我的

发丝贴在雨后的地砖。从几米外

走过的装修工人拎着塑料袋的午餐盒

多么寂静的正午啊，晒着太阳的我

其侧面的阴影正进入内部

如同装修房子的工人在阴雨天

只能在室内工作。绵长的春雨

快来了吧！那时候，太阳像黄金

藏在心里。露台上有一个汪洋

激起我喝水杯中的漪涟，空中鸟巢

不时的飞过一阵阵曲线

 

我在露台上发呆的时间

红嘴鸥飞往西伯利亚的翅膀在颤抖

______________________

Read: To the Woman … Chinese Poetry