Generals and soldiers are not yet fully decayed,
yet the city’s tale begins amid throngs of suffering.
Wang Xinbiao
Wang Xinbiao, born in Harbin in 1964, is a member of Heilongjiang Writers Association. He once served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Today Consumer News, where he authored and published more than one thousand news articles of various genres. He wrote the 300,000-word biographical reportage China’s Sugar King. He has penned documentary scripts for CCTV and Harbin Television Station. He worked as literary editor for the film Chang Longji, and co-authored the full-length film novel Deadly Strike. He began publishing poetry in 1983. His poems have appeared in periodicals including Young Poets, Poetry Forest, The Poet, Poetry Newspaper, Flying Apsaras, Northern Literature and Poetry Exploration. His essays have been published in South Reviews and Japan’s New Overseas Chinese News. His play Positive Publicity won the Second Prize at the National Short Play and Sketch Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture. He scripted the ice acrobatic dramas Ice Show • Dream-Seeking and Encounter • Harbin, both funded by the National Arts Fund of China. As a core creative team member, he was awarded Heilongjiang Provincial Annual Cultural Award (Acrobatics Category). Ballads of Drivers, an album featuring eleven lyrics written by him, was published and distributed by Huasheng Audio & Video Publishing House. He has published Watching Clouds Drift By, a selected poetry collection from his youthful years, and many of his poems have been included in various anthologies.
王鑫彪，哈尔滨人，1964年生，黑龙江省作家协会会员。曾任《今天消费报》副总编辑，撰发各类体裁新闻逾千篇，曾创作30万字传记报告文学《中国糖王》；曾为央视、哈尔滨电视台撰写专题片脚本；曾为电影《常隆基》文学编辑，与人合作创作长篇电影小说《绝杀》；1983年开始发表诗歌作品，散见于《青年诗人》《诗林》《诗人》《诗歌报》《飞天》《北方文学》《诗探索》等；有杂文发表于《南风窗》、日本《新华侨报》等；剧本《正面宣传》获文化部全国小戏小品大赛二等奖，所编冰上杂技剧《冰秀•寻梦》、《遇见•哈尔滨》获国家艺术基金资助，曾作为团队主创人员获黑龙江省年度文化（杂技类）大奖；作词11首的《司机谣》，由华盛音像出版社出版发行；曾刊行青春期诗歌自选集《看云去》，有诗作被收录于不同选集。
Translated by Ma Yongbo
Harbin Reminiscences (Suite of Poems)
《哈尔滨往事》（组诗）
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1. Central Street
To travel back a century, and
to freeze time, is less difficult than imagined.
Break open the shell; the sky has brightened.
Memories pave the dark brown cobblestones.
Dark brown souls stretch, unfolding postmodern agony.
It is a chaotic morning; horse hooves shatter the silence.
A white horse, and a noblewoman
in a long white dress reeking of foreign flesh.
Buildings and trees are steeped in sorrow.
A past from ten thousand miles away is transplanted in parallel,
alongside suffering, planted in the dark brown late autumn.
The dispossessed, now dispossess others once more.
A vicious cycle of immorality finds its footing in another land.
Generals and soldiers are not yet fully decayed,
yet the city’s tale begins amid throngs of suffering.
1、中央大街
回到上一个百年 并且
定格 未如想象中困难
敲开蛋壳 天空 已亮起来
记忆 铺满深褐色的面包石
深褐色的灵魂伸展后现代痛苦
这是混乱的早晨 马蹄声碎
一匹白马 和一袭白色长裙的
腥膻贵妇 建筑和树都在悲怆
万里之外的曾经 平行移植
连同痛苦 种于深褐色的深秋
被剥夺的剥夺者 再行剥夺
失德的循环 在另一个国度落笔
将军与士兵 尚未完全腐烂
而城市故事 已从一群痛苦开篇
-
Old Harbin Railway Station
Blurred tear-filled eyes, drunken eyes, drowsy eyes.
The drifting remaining life docks in an alien land.
The elegant station draws near, embracing you like an infant held tight.
It is a toxic mushroom, bursting forcibly from the earth —
breathtakingly beautiful, yet capable of killing in moments.
All that admiration is paler than a sun drained of blood.
We know the devil’s nerves, sturdy as oak,
often sink bloodthirsty deep roots within frail bodies,
even adorned with every strange novelty of this world.
This is foreshadowing of a paradox laid a century ago.
A bloodsucking mouth, kissing time’s lips deeply.
The entanglements destined for dust bloom into eternal flowers.
2、老哈尔滨火车站
泪眼 醉眼 与睡眼 朦胧中
漂浮的余生 于陌生之地停靠
漂亮的车站 亲近你恰如紧抱婴孩
这是毒蘑菇 强行破土而出
美得让人窒息 却分分钟夺命
那些欣羡 比失血的太阳更苍白
我们知道 魔鬼粗壮如橡的神经
往往于孱弱之躯扎下嗜血的深根
哪怕点缀这世间所有新奇的玩具
这是百年前 埋下的悖论的伏笔
一张吸血的口 深吻时光的嘴唇
归于尘土的纠结 幻成传世之花
-
Impressions of Soviet-style Apartment Blocks
A soft quilt of snow, blinding white.
The earth lays down its rigid frame.
An all-pervading hush, yet death remains unconfirmed.
Sturdy timber frames uphold an alien way of living.
Branches beside chimneys lift a streak of rose warmth
toward the sky, where Volga gloom surges.
The shapes of houses and bridges matter no longer.
Strangers long to belong, yet strangers can never belong.
We cannot reconstruct those
lives enclosed within these buildings: wine and sausages,
bayan melodies and dancing steps, guns and hearths,
shared joys, or separate misfortunes.
On this cold, oppressive day,
you can hear the footsteps of wandering souls.
3、苏联房印象
松软的雪被 耀眼的白
大地放平僵硬的 身躯
一派死寂 但不确定死亡
坚固的木架撑住陌生的生存
烟囱的枝条 将一抹玫瑰暖色
举向天空伏尔加河涌动的阴沉
房子和桥 如何造型已不重要
陌生想要融入 陌生难以融入
我们无法还原 那些
建筑之中的生活 酒精和香肠
巴杨和舞步 枪和壁炉
相似的幸福 或各自的不幸
这个寒冷而压抑的 白天
你会听见灵魂流浪的跫音
-
Winter Square
The sky blazes; bare
crowns of trees veil the multicoloured banners.
Large patches of blood lie abandoned upon the snow.
Unusual-shaped buildings are daubed with long-absent passion.
Whether it is dawn or dusk,
light flickers restlessly on gleaming windowpanes.
The wind has stilled. Restlessness
yawns, suspended for a while.
Everything turns into still lifes.
Each silent object brews its own mood.
At this moment, one may wonder
what state of mind confines these foreign men and women.
A sorrow always clings to wanderers,
be it dusk, or dawn.
4、冬日广场
天空烧起来 光秃的
树冠 遮蔽斑斓的旗帜
雪上 遗落了大块血迹
异形建筑 涂满久违的热情
这个黎明 或是黄昏
在耀亮的窗玻璃 反射不定
风已经停下来 躁动
打着哈欠 暂时停下来
一切都站成 静物
静物们酝酿各自的情绪
此刻 也许可以揣度
怎样的心境框住了异邦男女
总有一种难过缠绕流浪的人
无论黄昏 或是黎明
-
Saint Sophia Cathedral
God slumbers, God wakes,
within the grand building called cathedral,
upon dazzling onion-shaped domes,
amid prayers loaded with hidden agendas,
in dust glowing with radiance,
in the hearth chamber between heaven and earth.
Blazing crimson sunset clouds set off the pale snow.
Scraggly shrubs stand in ragged rows
at the feet of this colossal divine figure,
like soul-less scarecrows
rooted on this broad, complacent field.
Arrogance and humility circle one another tentatively,
yet scorn and animosity can barely be concealed.
God wakes, God slumbers.
5、索菲亚教堂
上帝睡去 上帝醒来
在被称作教堂的大房子
在眩目的洋葱头穹顶上
在各怀心腹事的祷告中
在光彩照人的 尘埃里
在天空与大地之间的炉膛内
彤红的火烧云映衬惨白的雪
奇形怪状的矮树丛 不甚整齐
列队于神祇巨无霸的足下
恰如失去魂魄的稻草人
兀立大腹便便的田野
傲娇与卑微 试探着互动
却难以掩饰鄙薄 和仇视
上帝醒来 上帝睡去
-
Old Apartment Complexes
Without enclosing fences, you
would never tell this is a courtyard.
Last night’s thorough snow bath
leaves the two buildings vigorous and whole.
Stables, or firewood sheds,
a clumsy makeshift combination.
The fusion that spans time and space
evokes a wry smile, like a buffoon’s show.
The tongue-tied residents
can never be friends with outsiders.
Dwellings are far too plain,
just one turned page of life.
Yet shadows scatter chaotically across the snow,
heavy piled clouds are crackling, blazing aloft.
6、老楼群
没有圈起的栅栏 你
不会看出 这是院落
昨夜一场酣畅的雪浴
两座楼宇 精神饱满
而马圈 或是柴房
一次拙劣的混搭
让跨越时空的交融
小丑一样让人莞尔
舌头打结的房主
不会与别宫为友
太简单了居所
翻过的一页生活
然而雪地上的影像纷杂散乱
浓重的积云 正噼啪烧起来
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