Among the secret things you’ve seen,
In the life you’ve walked through,
In the poems of poets, they have spoken of them.
Mu Si, is a member of the China Writers Association
Mu Si born in Yichun, Jiangxi Province in 1971, currently resides in Nanchang. He is a member of the China Writers Association. His works have been published in various journals such as Poetry Magazine, Youth Literature, Poetry Selection Magazine, Poetry Monthly, Poetry Tide, Yangtze River Poetry Journal, Jiangnan Poetry, Rain Flower, Thatched Cottage, Special Zone Literature, Stars Poetry Journal, West Lake, and Sichuan Literature. He has published poetry collections including Shigan’an Mountain, People in Works, and Boke Poems. He has won awards such as the 5th Jiangnan Poetry Award, and the 1st and 3rd Jiangxi Guyu Literature Awards.
牧斯，1971年生于江西宜春，现居南昌。中国作家协会会员。作品散见于《诗刊》《青年文学》《诗选刊》《诗歌月刊》《诗潮》《扬子江诗刊》《江南诗》《雨花》《草堂》《特区文学》《星星诗刊》《西湖》《四川文学》等刊物，著有诗集《十甘庵山》《作品中的人》《泊可诗》。曾获第五届江南诗歌奖，第一届、第三届江西省谷雨文学奖等奖项。
(Translated by Ma Yongbo)
Poets
PoetsAmong the secret things you’ve seen,
In the life you’ve walked through,
In the poems of poets, they have spoken of them.
They depict the strangeness of man, his unyielding spirit and his sorrow,
Taken from all things, and returned to all things,
Like the poria fruit pushing out a bright red in late autumn.
They depict how man’s voice and image are destroyed in destruction.
They grieve for man
Fading like light into the darkness of a woodcut.
It is the voice, they call out to themselves again and again,
Looking back, what did they find?
But none of this is reason enough to hold them back.
They try to let the intonation of their words
Lower the sea’s water level once more,
Let love be heard once again.
The emptiness of all things
Is right behind,
Like resting on the edge of a thousand-foot cliff.
***
诗人们
在你见过的秘密事物里，
在你走过的生命里，
在诗人们的诗篇里，他们谈到过。
他们描绘了人之异样，人之不屈又人之悲凉，
取之于万有，又回到万有。
似土伏苓果于深秋支出一抹清亮的红色。
他们描绘人之声音、人之形象毁坏于毁坏里。
他们悲哀于人
像光一样湮没在版画的黑暗里。
是声音，他们一声声喊住自己。
回望发现了什么，
但这都不足以为喊住他们的原因。
他们试图让自己的词语的语调
再一次降低海的水平面，
让爱再一次被听见。
万有的虚空
就在背后，
似枕在万丈悬崖之上。
***
Space
SpaceHave you ever thought, that space
Is the greatest divinity in this world?
It embraces and permeates everything,
Filling any crevices, just like a glass bell – jar.
Space is liquid, nutrition, and entity
Without gravity, it can still lift people up.
Currently, we believe that love bathes everything,
But love is an abstract thing,
While space is real.
Everyone can feel it, yet forget themselves in the process.
When we stand up, we need to part the space
And enter another self.
Space is both nothingness and infinity.
It exists in places where our thoughts cannot reach.
Is space the greatest divinity?
Although there is sunlight and air here,
In fact, some things don’t need them.
Space is like a vast ocean, boundless,
The master of the universe,
Space is a living being,
And we are accidents.
***
空间
是否想过，空间
才是这个世界最大的神性。
它拥抱、浸润一切，
填满任何有缝隙的地方，
就像一个玻璃钟罩。
空间才是液体、营养、实物，如果离开引力，
还能将人托起。
目前我们认为爱沐浴世间的一切，
可爱是抽象之物
而空间是现实。
人人能感受得到而自忘。
当我们起身，需要分开空间
进入到另一个自我中。
空间既是虚无，
又是无极。
在思不达的地方，它也存在。
空间是否为最大的神性？
尽管此间有了阳光、空气。
但实际上，有的物不需要这些。
空间才是汪洋大海，广袤无垠，宇宙大师，
空间是一个生命体。
我们是意外。
***
Mother
MotherMother, who went out to toil,
Would always bring back a huge bundle of firewood every time,
Or a large load of tea seeds, a large load of millet on her shoulder.
But not this time,
She came back holding a big handful of daisies and baby’s breath.
The house was also covered with Chinese roses and peonies,
As grand as a festival.
I remember she never planted anything other than crops,
I remember she always uprooted anything other than crops.
I used to never understand why mother had to dig up purple jasmine,
Dig up annual fleabanes, bitter herbs, angelicas, and cornflowers…
But now it’s different, she has started to read books.
Nearly eighty years old, she sits under the shade of a tree
Reading The Classic of Documents,
Just like the way she first came to Shigan’an back in the day.
***
母亲
出去干活的母亲，
每次都是满满的一大捆柴捡回来。
或者一大担油茶籽、一大担谷子挑回来。
但这一次没有，
她捧着一大把雏菊和满天星回来了。
房子里也铺满了月季和牡丹，
节日一般盛大。
记得她种地从来不种除庄稼以外的东西，
记得她从来都是锄掉除庄稼以外的东西。
以前非常不理解，母亲为何要锄掉紫茉莉，
为何要锄掉一年蓬、苦菜、当归和矢车菊 ……
但现在不一样了，她读起书来了。
年近八十，她在树荫下
读《尚书》，
如同她当年来到十甘庵的样子。
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