What have we come to the ancient town to seek?
Crowds surge to and fro,
Not a single familiar face among them.
Li Jidang, Han ethnicity, was born in Fuquan, Guizhou Province in 1970. He studied History at Changchun Normal University and Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature at Southwest China Normal University, where he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1999. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of Guizhou Writers’ Association, Editor-in-Chief of Mountain Flowers, Vice President of Guizhou Periodicals Association, and Doctoral Supervisor at South-Central Minzu University. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and Guizhou Artists Association. His translations, poems, fictions, literary critiques, essays and paintings have been published in newspapers and periodicals including Poetry Periodical, October, Chinese Writers, The Writer, Shanghai Literature, World Literature and Literary and Art News. His poems have been included in numerous anthologies. His published works include the poetry collection Straight Volume, as well as translated novels The Sound and the Fury and Of Human Bondage. He is the recipient of multiple honors: the 7th Guizhou Provincial Literature and Art Award, Outstanding Contribution Award for Young Writers of Guizhou, Hundred Flowers Literature Award (Editor’s Award), the 3rd Yin Zhen Poetry Award, and the 2nd Renhe Young Editor Award for Chinese Literary Journals at Home and Abroad. He was named one of the 3rd Batch of Guizhou Provincial Literary and Art Workers with Both Professional Excellence and Moral Integrity. He has edited anthologies such as Selected Poems of Twelve Guizhou Poets in the New Century and Finding Direction in Writing. He has held the art exhibition Myself and This World: Sketches of Literary Masters by Li Jidang at Zhongtian Art Museum in Guiyang and Yunnan Provincial Library.
李寂荡，汉族，生于1970年，贵州福泉人。曾就读于长春师范学院历史系和西南师大中国现当代文学专业。1999年，获文学硕士学位。现为贵州省作协副主席，《山花》杂志主编，贵州省期刊协会副会长,中南民大博士生导师。中囯作协会员，贵州省美协会员。在《诗刊》《十月》《中国作家》《作家》《上海文学》《世界文学》《文艺报》等报刊发表有翻译、诗歌、小说、评论、散文、绘画等作品，诗作入选多种选本。出版诗集《直了集》、翻译小说《喧哗与骚动》《月亮与六便士》。获第七届贵州省文艺奖、贵州省青年作家突出贡献奖、百花文学奖•编辑奖、第三届尹珍诗歌奖、第二届海内外华文文学期刊“人和青年编辑奖”等。第三届贵州省德艺双馨文艺工作者。主编有《新世纪贵州十二诗人诗选》《在写作中寻找方向》等。先后在贵阳中天美术馆、云南省图书馆举办画展《“我自己和这个世界——李寂荡•文学大师素描展”》。
Translated by Ma Yongbo
Ancient Town
What have we come to the ancient town to seek?
Crowds surge to and fro,
Not a single familiar face among them.
We find a bookstore named Useless Things,
Yet not a single book there is worth buying.
We track down the filming location of the movie Missing Gun,
But take no photo together. We visit the old yamen,
Its court permanently adjourned.
We come upon an ornately carved opera stage,
With no performance to be staged.
We step into the church, empty of missionaries.
You ask the gentle female shopkeeper
To hand-make a lipstick for you on the spot,
Painting a streak of sunset across your pale lips.
When you light three incense sticks, I light a cigarette.
When you kneel on the rush cushion to pray,
I sit upon the bluestone steps before the temple hall.
I have no idea what wish you whisper,
You hold your breath, concentrated,
While the Buddha wears his eternal smile,
Maybe that wish is known only to you, and the Buddha.
Sturdy city walls wind upward along the hillside,
Beneath the sunset, a white marble archway stands silent,
Everywhere are hurried footsteps and curious wandering eyes.
At last, we abandon our search,
Choosing a quiet bar to sit down. Facing each other,
We seem to understand what it was we came here looking for.
古镇
我们去古镇寻找什么呢。熙熙攘攘的人群
没有哪一副面孔是我们熟悉的
我们寻找到一家叫“百无一用”的书店
却没有一本书是我们需要购买的
我们寻找到电影《寻枪》的拍摄地
也没留下一张合影。我们去到衙门
衙门是永久退堂的。我们找到一处雕花戏台
并不见有什么戏要出演
我们去到教堂，里面并没有传教士
你让那温柔的女店主给自己手工现做了一支唇膏
将苍白的唇抹上一缕晚霞
当你点燃三炷香时，我点燃一支烟
当你跪拜在蒲团上时，我则坐上庙宇前的青石台阶
我不知道你许下什么心愿
你屏息凝神，而佛一如既往地微笑
那心愿也许只有你知，佛知
坚固的城墙随山坡向上蜿蜒
夕阳下，汉白玉牌坊悄然矗立
到处是匆匆的步履和猎奇的目光
最终我们停止了寻找
选了一家僻静的酒吧坐了下来。面对面
我们似乎知道了自己在寻找什么
***
New Year Gift
That year, Guizhou suffered an unprecedented freezing disaster.
My elder sister got off the train at Machangping Station,
Coming back from another province.
The station was twenty kilometers away from our home in the county town.
All vehicles except trains had suspended service;
The roads were slick as mirrors. It was New Year’s Eve.
Beneath a murky gray sky, firecrackers boomed far and near.
Stumbling and slipping all the way,
My sister finally made it home as the lamps were lit.
Her body was covered in bruises from countless falls,
Yet her face bloomed with a bright smile.
One by one, she pulled things out of her suitcase,
Apart from her clothes and toiletries,
The largest item was a dog figure,
Tawny fur, a long scarlet tongue lolling out,
Sat upright with eyes burning bright as torches,
So lifelike you could barely tell it apart from a real dog
Save for the fact that it could not bark.
My sister worked in Wenzhou and had not returned home for a whole year,
She said this was a product from the toy factory where she labored.
For the Lunar New Year, the factory boss had given it
To all workers as a year-end bonus.
She passed it on to me as my New Year gift,
No label had been stuck on it yet，
Cast from resin, it felt heavy in the hand,
And a sharp, pungent odor of methane lingered off.
新年礼物
那年是贵州从未见过的凝冻
姐姐从外省乘火车在家乡的马场坪站下车
那儿离县城的家还有二十公里
除了火车，所有的车辆都已停运
路面光滑如镜。这天是除夕
阴霾的天穹下，远近是此起彼伏的炮竹声
姐姐跌跌撞撞，硬是在亮灯时赶到了家
尽管浑身摔得淤青，可她却是
笑容满面。她逐一掏出行李箱里的物件
除了她的衣物和洗漱工具
最大的物件竟然是一只狗
棕褐色的皮毛，吐着一条长长的红舌头
蹲坐着，目亮如炬
除了不会吠叫，简直可以乱真
姐姐在温州打工，一年未回
姐姐说这是她们在玩具厂做的产品
过年了，老板发给她们作为年终的一份奖励
姐姐把它送给我，作为新年礼物
它还没有贴上标签，它是树脂做的，沉甸甸的
还散发着阵阵刺鼻的甲烷味道
***
The Sea
I took my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter to the seashore,
It was her first time seeing the ocean,
She stared out at the sea, while I watched her expression.
She showed no trace of wonder,
Beneath her sun hat, her brows drew slightly tight—
Perhaps the sunlight blazing across the sand was too harsh,
Her dark eyes had long held only the quiet mountain silhouettes of Guizhou,
Now they brimmed with churning waves and distant drifting ships.
She seemed lost in thought, what thoughts stirred inside her?
I could never tell. I took her hand and stepped into the water,
And she moved with endless caution.
Our slippers lay on the sand,
Ten feet back from the tide line she walked back,
Carrying her slippers and sand-digging tools
Twenty feet farther from the waves. All at once
A huge wave crashed forward,
Tourists shrieked and scrambled toward the shore.
An unmanned motorboat came surging in,
And I braced myself to block its path.
Countless visitors’ belongings left on the sand
Were swept away into the sea in an instant.
The next afternoon, we returned to the beach again,
No matter how I tugged her hand,
My daughter refused to step into the ocean once more.
She played alone in a shallow ditch carved into the sand,
Her back turned fully to the sea,
Digging sand, picking up shells, chasing tiny crabs.
The sea still roiled restlessly, rumbling with endless surf,
Groups of people still ran down to the water to play.
None of it seemed to touch her at all,
Only that narrow ditch held all her attention.
大海
我将四岁半的女儿带到海边
这是她第一次看见大海
她注视着大海，而我
注视着她的神情。她没有表现出惊喜
遮阳帽下，双眉微蹙着——
也许是照在沙滩上的阳光太强烈的缘故
她黝黑的眸子一直映照着的是贵州寂静的山影
此刻装满的是动荡的海水和远处移动的轮船
她似乎在沉思。她在沉思什么呢
我不得而知。我拽着她踏入海水
她一副小心翼翼的样子
我们搁在沙滩上的拖鞋
离海水有一丈远，她返回
将自己的拖鞋、挖沙的工具放到
离海水两丈远的地方。突然
一阵巨浪袭来，人群尖叫着向岸上撤离
一只无人的汽艇冲了过来，被我牢牢挡住
不少游人放在沙滩上的东西
瞬间被海水卷到了海里
次日午后，我们又来到海边
任凭我怎么拖拽
女儿再也不肯下到海里
她自个儿在沙滩上的沟渠里玩耍
背对大海，挖沙，捡贝壳，捉小螃蟹
海水依然动荡不息，发出阵阵涛声
人群依然一拨拨地冲进海里嬉戏
这一切仿佛都与她无关
和她有关的只是那条沟渠
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