I never meant to trap it under canvas

It’s lovely, so I do my best not to shade its small face.

Wang Jianmin, born in Qinghai, China in 1962. While studying at university in 1984, he won the “Feitian University Student Poetry Garden Award”. A Critical History of New Qinghai Literature, published in the last century, affirmed Wang Jianmin’s achievements in poetic creation, and meanwhile held that his theoretical propositions exerted a far-reaching influence on Qinghai’s literary circle. He was the first to put forward the concept of “Huanghe River-Huangshui River Literature (Hehuang Literature)”. His lengthy essay On Hehuang Literature offered a relatively comprehensive theoretical exploration of the internal coherence and practical feasibility of Hehuang Literature, demonstrating a rare consciousness of theoretical self-awareness seldom seen among Qinghai literary scholars. In 2018, Wang Jianmin’s poetry collection Blue Salt of the Sun was selected for and published under the “21st Century Poetry and Poetics Collection Library” by Zhejiang Gongshang University Press. In terms of the rhetoric of modern Chinese new poetry, Wang Jianmin’s verses possess a rare purity and lucidity, through which they attain metaphysical freedom.

王建民，男， 1962年出生于中国青海。1984年大学期间获“《飞天》大学生诗苑奖”。上世纪出版的《青海新文学史论》肯定了王建民的诗歌创作成就，同时认为，王建民的理论主张对青海文坛有着深远的意义。他最先提出了“河湟文学”的概念，他的长文《河湟文学论》从理论上比较完整地讨论了‘河湟文学’的内洽性与实践的可能性，显示了一种青海文坛上少有的理论的自觉意识。2018年，王建民诗集《太阳的青盐》入选浙江工商大学出版社 “21世纪诗与诗学典藏文库”并出版。王建民的诗歌在汉语新诗修辞上表现出一种难得的干净和清醒，从而抵达形而上的自由。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

Flower inside the Tent

It was already there when I pitched the tent

I never meant to trap it under canvas

It’s lovely, so I do my best not to shade its small face

That much I do on purpose

The woman glances at it while folding felt rugs

Lost in blank bewilderment for a moment

So tiny, so delicate,

Yet so boldly conspicuous

It cannot live apart from the earth

Nor does it need anyone’s tending

There is no compromise solution to deal with it

If it were but a strand of hair floating in ghee

Things would be simple enough, but it is only a flower

Its kin grow everywhere

Even those crushed beneath my horse’s hooves

Yet this one has chosen to dwell inside my tent

Each day, when I herd the sheep home and slip under the canvas

It turns the whole world sharply, utterly changed.

帐篷里的花

搭帐篷时它就在那儿

不是故意把它罩进去的

它好看  尽量不遮挡它的小脸

这是我的故意

女人收拾毡毯时瞅它一眼

一阵子茫然

它那么小  那么娇嫩

又是那么显摆

不能离开大地

也不需要人来供养

对付它  甚至没有折中的办法

如果它是酥油中的牛毛

倒也好办  可它就是一朵花

它的家人到处都是

包括我的马儿踩烂的那些

它偏偏在我的帐篷里

每天我赶羊回来钻进帐篷

它就让一切陡然大变

***

Sun, Ice and Water of Stone

Who renders me transparent

I award him a medal woven of grass blades

Who muddies my flow

I award him a medal cast of gold

Who stirs me into raging fury

I seat him upon the dragon throne

Spray, flower stamens, stardust fine

Nurses pouring life into veins, serpents of procreation…

Kneel low beneath Animaqing’s feet, and you shall behold

I am the blue-green hue longed for by fish beneath the Dragon Gate

The Sun bids me drift without destination

Cold is a hoarder fond of collecting all things

That being who coils and lures me back to his abode

Is an exquisite drain for waste

His woman is one unplanned bend along my course

I am the water belonging to all

All others follow grass and streams, ascending far into the blue sky

I alone tumble down into the abyss

太阳和冰和石头的水

谁让我透明

我给他草叶的奖章

谁让我浑浊

我给他金子的奖章

谁让我暴跳如雷

我让他坐龙床

浪花，花蕊，星星的粉末

给血脉灌水的护士，生殖的蛇……

匍匐在阿尼玛卿脚下你们就能看见

我是龙门的鱼遥望的青色

太阳叫我漫无目标

寒冷是个爱收藏的家伙

那个拐弯抹角请我去他家的人

是精致的排污器

他的女人是我不经意的一个拐弯

我是大家的水

大家逐水草而去远上蓝天

我，跌进了深渊

***

Scarce Clouds

What you barely possess abounds endlessly with me

Blue skies and white clouds, for instance

Chunks of cloud drift down from the horizon

Long robe catches some, veils some, shakes loose some

Yet nothing I own has ever strayed from my heart

Countless masses, countless wisps

Pale white clouds on clear days, dark storm clouds when rain looms

They can never sink to earth

Never whirl and dance to melt into mud

Feeding flora that bloom freely and sway in the wind

All they may summon are external things

Hot gales, cold breezes, mist and moisture

Simmering a cauldron of chaos above every head

What a tempest of wind and rain it makes

And so, after heavy downpour, floods surge wide

All the moods trapped within that rushing water

Can never douse the flames of hell

And so, after heavy downpour, water droplets scatter

Like endless wailing infants

Spattering to the ground, vanishing into the cloud masses of days

What lingers is a plate of amber, a plate of turquoise

Left for wandering monks who chance to pass by

Simple wishes remain as well

Which I tuck away within myself

Squinting upward at the sky

Hastening cloud drifters hurrying to market

A single glance, and a thousand years slip past

稀少的云

你稀缺的，我这儿多的要命

比如蓝天白云

那些云一片一片从天际掉下来

长袍挽留一些，遮挡一些，抖落一些

可是我的一切从未离开过我的心

不知有多少团多少片

晴天的白云，雨天的黑云

它们无法坠落

无法飞舞旋转，落地成泥

滋养善于开放喜好摇摆的植被

只能招来身外之物啦

那些热风、冷风、水分

在所有人头顶上煮一锅粥

好一番云雨呵

好啦，大雨过后流水泛滥

那些水里的心情

再也浇不灭地狱的火焰

好啦，大雨过后水珠逃散

像没完没了的婴儿

噼啪落地，没入日子的云团

剩下琥珀一盘，绿松石一盘

给偶然巧遇的出家人

还剩下简单的心愿

我只好就这么揣着

眯眼看天

匆忙赶集的流云

一晃千年

_____________________

Read: Gloom of Dusk – Chinese Poetry

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