Let me see your apron clearly

See how you turn nimbly amid trivialities

Pass through the main room and the graveyard, with a clover

A bee, you make a prairie stretch beyond the summer birdsong.

Jiang Xuefeng is an award-winning poet of China

Jiang Xuefeng, a native of Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, is a member of the China Writers Association. He has won awards such as the Sichuan Literature Award, the Special Award of the 7th NPC Li Bai Poetry Award of New Century Poetry Canon, the Bi-annual Short Poem Award of China Poetry Ranking, and the Sharpening Iron Top Ten Poets Award. He has published poetry collections including Piano Room, So Much Gold, Dreams and Tigers, Brocade Book, From Now On, Moonlight Pushes Open the Door, Mountain Hide in Mountains, and Li Bai is African (German-Chinese bilingual). His prose works include Hometown of Li Bai and Like Sand. His works have been translated into three languages: English, Korean, and German, and have been included in anthologies such as China Poetry Yearbook, China Poetry Canon, Anthology of Chinese Fourth-Generation Poets, and New Century Poetry Canon.

蒋雪峰，四川江油人。中国作家协会会员，曾获四川文学奖、《新世纪诗典》第七届NPC李白诗歌奖特别奖、中国诗歌排行榜双年度短诗奖，磨铁十佳诗人奖等奖项。出版诗集《琴房》、《那么多黄金 梦和老虎》、《锦书》、《从此以后》、《月光推门》、《山藏在山里》、《李白是非洲人》（德汉双语），随笔《李白故里》、《如沙》。作品被译成英、韩、德三种文字。作品入选《中国诗歌年鉴》《中国诗典》《中国第四代诗人诗选》《新世纪诗典》等选本。

(Translated by Ma Yongbo)

Let Me See Your Apron Clearly

—Dedicated to Emily Dickinson

Let me see your apron clearly

See how you turn nimbly amid trivialities

Pass through the main room and the graveyard, with a clover

A bee, you make a prairie stretch beyond the summer birdsong

 

You return home to pray, split firewood, carry wine out of the cellar

Outside lie the woods and the mower’s shadow

Farther away, the church of Amherst can be seen

Never stepping out, you feed the jays with bread crumbs

Feed the leaping thoughts with silence and misfortune

 

Unable to reach God’s right hand, the wilderness and the ocean

Unable to reach more apples on the tree

Yet you know the tricks of the souls, of eating and resting

When laundering and cooking cease

Your eyes begin to shine at night

Writing black words on white paper

Turning thorny things and linguistic housework

Into a concise feather

On which dream horses, wild bees and spring ride

Flying all night long

 

Before the jade wheat ears unfurl, the carriage arrives

You understand this hint

You, the bride in the end days

Prepare your body, age and poetry

Take off the apron, dust off the last dust in your heart.

***

让我看清你的围裙

——献给艾米莉•狄金森

让我看清你的围裙

看清你在琐事里如何轻盈地转身

穿过堂屋和坟地用一株苜蓿

一只蜂造就一片草原铺向夏天的鸟鸣之外

 

你回到家里祈祷，劈柴，把酒从地窑里搬出来

外面是丛林和割草人的身影

再远些能看见艾默斯特镇教堂

你足不出户用面包屑喂养㭴鸟

用寂静和不幸喂养跃动的思想

 

无力达到上帝的右手，荒原与海洋

够不着树上更多的苹果

却懂得灵魂出没的窍门，饮食和歇息

当浆洗和烹调停止

你的眼睛在夜里开始发亮

在白纸上写下黑字

把带刺的事物与语言家务劳动

变成一根简洁的羽毛

梦想的马匹野蜂与春天搭乘其上

彻夜飞翔

 

玉泰蜀尚未吐缨，马车就来了

你明白这暗示

你这末日里的新娘

准备好身体年龄和诗歌

脱下围裙，掸尽了内心最后的尘土

***

In Winter

In winter, we disregard everything

With a sip of wine, we move all things below zero

To the back of Western Hill. If verbs are enough

We’ll also move ourselves into empty caves

Let only the desired wind blow, blowing back last year’s beauty

To register our household in the Tang Dynasty

And plant the yard full of tropical plants.

 

Heavy snow, like a memorial to the throne,

Is revised until not a word remains

Brother, we are the deleted truths

Either dazzlingly white or melting quietly

Before that, time pushes us aside with its hooves

To graze on the grass beneath

 

Brother, the season in your heart has long eloped

Flirting with those disreputable flowers and willows

Refusing to be a good person

You strike with a knife at the waist, chopping the past into two halves

One half becomes a humble woman, the other an isolated ruler

When you’re drunk, they remarry in the moon

 

In winter, poetry keeps kicking our heads

Kicking them into a stone, stinking and hard

Inside, white snowflakes drifting, brother

 ***

在冬天

冬天，我们目空一切

用一口酒把零度以下的事情

搬到西山背后。如果动词够用

再把自己搬成空穴

只刮想要的风，把去年的美人刮回来

把户口落在唐朝

院子里种满热带植物

 

大雪如奏章被改得不剩一字

兄弟，我们是被删除的真话

要么白得耀眼

要么悄悄地融化

在这之前时间用蹄子拨开我们

啃下面的青草

 

兄弟，你心里的季节早就私奔

与不三不四的花柳打情骂俏

就是不愿意从良

你拦腰一刀，把往事砍成两半

一半成奴家一半成寡人

你喝醉了，他们就在月亮里复婚

 

在冬天，诗歌继续踢我们的脑袋

踢成一块石头又臭又硬

里面飘满了洁白的雪花，兄弟

***

A Band on a Wrecked Ship

Death must be right beneath your feet

Cold and wriggling

The band is still alive

A cluster of tough plants, an unyielding flame

Swaying and growing on the tilted deck

 

The iceberg knocked over wine glasses and kisses

Why do your clothes and noble heads

Remain motionless?

All your life you have sat like this

Amid the clamor of metal and calculations

Calibrating the pitch

With eyes bright and clear

 

Wave after wave of familiar melodies

Gush from lips and fingers

Flowing through labor, weddings, and illnesses

Sorrowful yet plain

Like a bird

Pausing on the top of a church

 

Be more fluent, please

For this farewell performance, the audience

Is only the helpless self, darkness

And butcher knives undulating in the sea

Our women and children have been rescued

Holding our heartbeats and blood

They reach the pier and warmth

 

This fire of the soul is graceful and serene

Time is running out, please stand up

Butterflies, souls, flying things gathering around the piano sounds

The sea can’t take them away, brothers.

***

 沉船上的一支乐队

死亡肯定就在脚下

寒冷而游动

乐队还活着

一簇坚强的植物不屈的火焰

在倾斜的甲板上，摇曳与生长

 

冰山碰翻了酒杯和亲吻

你们的衣服和高贵的头

为什么不动

这一生你们都这样坐着

在金属和算计的喧嚣里

校正音准

眼神灿烂而晴朗

 

一股又一股熟悉的旋律

从嘴唇和手指喷涌

流经劳动、婚礼和疾病

忧伤而朴素

像一只鸟

在教堂顶端停留

 

再流畅些吧

这为了告别的演出的听众

只剩下无援的自己与黑暗

海水里起伏的屠刀

我们的妇女和儿童已经遇救

怀揣我们的心跳和血

抵达码头和温暖

 

这心灵之火优美而宁静

时间不多，请站起来

琴声周围聚集的蝴蝶、灵魂、飞翔之物

海水是带不走的，弟兄们

_________________  

Read: Empty Mountain – Poetry from China