On the day of the Lantern Festival

The sea stretches straight out from the window…

Qiu Zhenglun, an acclaimed poet from China, shares his poetry

Qiu Zhenglun, was born in Dazhou, Sichuan Province. He is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Fine Arts, Southwest University, a distinguished aesthetics tutor at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, and a postgraduate tutor of calligraphy at Changxin International College of the Arts, Yunnan University. He serves as a member of the Expert Committee on Art Education of the Ministry of Education, an evaluation expert for the Yangtze River Scholars Program of the Ministry of Education, a tutor of the “China Calligraphy Education Tutor Group” of the China Association for the Promotion of Cultural and Artistic Development, a member of the China Artists Association, a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, a member of the Chinese Aesthetics Society, a member of the International Association for Aesthetics, the director of the Academic Department of Shen Peng Calligraphy Elite Class at the China National Academy of Painting, the director of the Research Center for Contemporary Urban Aesthetics of China at Southwest University, the president of the Chongqing Society of Art Aesthetics, and the vice president of the Chongqing Literary and Art Critics Association. He has published many poetry collections, such as Forty-nine Feelings, Scenery on the Palm, The Age of Cold Weapons, and The Age of Heavy Water. He has also published more than 20 academic monographs, including Visual China, Aesthetics of Writing, Art Aesthetics, Aesthetics of Aesthetic Value, Examining Modern Art, and On Artistic Value. In 2009, he won the Chongqing Municipal Government Literary and Art Criticism Award. In the same year, his paper Reshaping the National Image of Contemporary Art from a Local Perspective won the award at the “11th National Art Exhibition • Forum on Contemporary Art Creation” sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and the National Artists Association. His work Construction Must Start from Local Values won the 8th Criticism Award of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles in 2012.As a renowned calligrapher, he spent three years copying the entire text of Dream of the Red Chamber, which amounts to 1.03 million characters.

邱正伦，男，汉族，四川省达州人，西南大学美术学院教授，博士生导师，中国艺术研究院特聘美学导师，云南大学昌新国际艺术学院书法研究生导师。教育部艺术教育专家委员会成员、教育部长江学者评审专家，中国文化艺术发展促进会“中国书法教育导师团”导师，中国美术家协会会员、中国作家协会会员、中国文艺评论家协会会员、中华美学学会会员、国际美学学会会员、中国国家画院沈鹏书法精英班学术部部长、西南大学中国当代城市美学研究中心主任、重庆市艺术美学学会会长、重庆市文艺评论家协会副主席。出版《四十九中感觉》《手掌上的风景》《冷兵器时代》《重水时代》等多部诗集，出版《视觉中华》《书写美学》《艺术美学》《审美价值学》《审视现代艺术》、《艺术价值论》等二十余部学术专著。2009年获重庆市政府文艺评论奖，2009年论文《从本土视角重塑当代艺术的国家形象》获得由文化部、中国文联、全国美术家协会主办的 “第十一届全国美展•当代美术创作论坛”奖，《建构，必须从本土价值开始》获2012年中国文联第八届评论奖。作为著名书法家，他曾用三年时间抄写了全本《红楼梦》，共103万字。

Translated by Ma Yongbo

On the day of the Lantern Festival

We try to live by the seaside

Waves repeat waves

We begin to repeat ourselves

No need for innovation, no need for ingenuity

Everything as usual, everything taking its natural course

No need to listen to sounds beyond the sea

Remaining as vast and calm as the sea itself

 

Let the sea breeze rumple the years of our lives

Stirring up layers of ripples

Yet never letting a violent gale rage

Or torrents roar endlessly

Holding fast to the passion deep within

Like an island that contends with no one under the sun.

 

On the day of the Lantern Festival

The sea stretches straight out from the window

Either greeting the rosy dawn

Or seeing off the setting sun

The only thing that needs no greeting or farewell

Is the obsession we’re born with!

 

At this moment, our mood is like that of seagulls

Maintaining a low-flying posture

Experiencing every single spray

Pecking open the sea’s secrets with a beak

Uninterrupted, unceasing

Ever-living, ever-proceeding

***

在元宵节这一天

我们尝试在海边生活

海浪重复着海浪

我们开始重复着自己

不必创新，不必别出心裁

一切照旧，一切顺其自然

不必聆听大海以外的声音

像大海一样保持着辽阔与平静

 

让海风吹皱自己的岁月

泛起一层层涟漪

但绝不狂风大作

或者滔滔不绝

保持住内心深处的热情

像一座与世无争的岛屿

 

在元宵节这一天

大海直接从窗前延伸出去

要么迎接朝霞

要么送走落日

唯一不需要迎来送往的

是我们与生俱来的执念

 

此刻，我们的心情与海鸥一样

保持住低飞的姿态

经历每一朵浪花

用喙啄破大海的秘密

连绵不绝

生生不已

***

Qiu Zhenglun as a Poet

As a poet

Qiu Zhenglun is purer than me

For example, he persistently loves spring

And the time when flowers bloom

 

The days of spring shine brilliantly

Yet they don’t get in the way at all

Let flower buds open naturally

Don’t attend too many meetings

Otherwise, this spring will rot away

Preventing us from stepping into the delicate petals

To grasp the meaning of spring.

 

That’s why I like Qiu Zhenglun as a poet

Rather than myself, anxious about life

It’s obvious that my life is far from comparable

To Qiu Zhenglun, enchanted by poetry.

 

In the morning, as I go for a morning run

Qiu Zhenglun recites poems

It’s not bad to recite some classic poems from the Tang and Song dynasties

But he swears not to write classical poetry

Let alone cater to the tastes of upstarts

Forcing sorrow to compose new verses

Crafting poems and songs

 

Moreover, I’m in charge of picking up and dropping off my son every day

Then urging him to finish his homework

I have a bad temper, and my son advises me to learn from the poet Qiu Zhenglun

To read classics together, for at this moment, the spring in the heart

Will bloom as brightly as peach blossoms, perhaps

This is the gap between Qiu Zhenglun and me.

 

The reason is simple

Living in this shameless era

Qiu Zhenglun still loves poetry

And has persisted all along

Most of the time, I worry about money

Life makes us vulgar

Qiu Zhenglun, as a poet

Has remained pure to this day.

***

作为诗人的邱正伦

作为诗人

邱正伦比我纯粹

比如执着热爱春天

热爱花开的时间

 

春天的时光开得很耀眼

也一点不碍事

让花蕾自然打开

不要参加太多的会议

否则这个春天就会烂掉

让我们无法走进玲珑的花瓣

领会春天的意义

 

所以我喜欢作为一名诗人的邱正伦

而不是为生活焦躁不安的我

很显然，我的生活远远比不上

为诗歌迷醉的邱正伦

 

早上起来，我一边晨跑

邱正伦一边吟诗

背诵一些唐宋的经典诗篇也不错

但自己发誓不写古典诗词

更不投暴发户所好

为赋新词强说愁

做一篇诗词歌赋

 

再有，我每天负责接送儿子

然后督促儿子完成家庭作业

我的脾气暴躁，儿子劝我向诗人邱正伦学习

一起朗读经典，此刻内心的春天

就会灿若桃花，或许

这就是我和邱正伦的差距

 

其中的原因很简单

生活在这个无耻的时代

邱正伦依然热爱诗歌

并且一直坚持

我更多的时候为钱发愁

生活使我们俗气

作为诗人的邱正伦

迄今仍保持纯粹

***

Me and Myself

I wake up earlier than myself

I’ve long been awake

While myself is still asleep

Myself and I have long been living apart

Yet myself doesn’t know it

Still thinking highly of itself

I work from dawn till dusk

But myself is powerless

Feeding on me, wearing me, using me, and selling off my whole life

 

For the sake of myself

I set up projects, take on engineering works, get diplomas

Cheating and swindling, yet myself still looks shabby and poor

Constantly complaining that its days are unlivable

In fact, I’ve been deceived by myself

Or I’ve deceived myself

Myself has great ideals

Yet it keeps lying in bed, getting hit without fighting back

I still forgive myself

Forgive its past, present, and future

I’ve already gotten up

But myself is still dreaming

Dreaming that life is wonderful

Yet I know nothing about it

Myself and I have turned against each other

When will myself come back?

I have no idea!

***

我和我自己

我比自己醒得早些

我早就醒了

自己还在睡觉

我和自己早已分居

自己还不知道

还自以为是

我起早贪黑

自己却无能为力

吃我穿我用我出卖我的一生

 

我为了自己

立项目搞工程拿文凭

肯蒙拐骗，自己却依然是一副穷酸样

时时发出自己的日子莫法过了

其实我被自己骗了

或者我骗了自己

自己的理想很大

却时刻赖在床上躺着中枪

我依然原谅自己

原谅自己的过去现在与未来

我早已经起床了

自己还在做梦

梦见生活十分美好

我却一点都不知道

我和自己已经反目成仇

自己什么时候回来

我不知道！

***

Looking Up to See Trees

Every day I walk on this mosaic-paved earth

Unable to find the once-familiar soil

Coupled with the dry season,

Plants have one by one retreated from the earth’s surface

 

Such days have lasted for a long, long time

Familiar houses have been demolished one after another,

Countless tall buildings have sprung up

The sky has been pierced with countless holes,

A world full of wounds from then on, it’s hard to recover

 

But no one feels the danger,

The rivers and water where we played in our childhood

Have today become famous brands, filled with additives

The poetic water only exists in fairy tales

Today’s water has turned into one war after another

Such as the Nansha Islands, where water glows red amid bullets

Changing its identity in the smoke of gunpowder

 

I got up to run today, and suddenly looked up to see trees

Feeling a great sense of familiarity, trees after a long absence

Their canopies are like clouds, the wind passes through the dense leaves

Making beautiful music

Echoing endlessly around the beams

***

抬头见到树木

我每天在铺满马赛克的地球上行走

找不到曾经熟悉的土壤

加上干旱的季节，植物们纷纷退出地球的表面

这样的日子持续了遥远的时间

一座座熟悉的房屋被撤迁，无数的高楼拔地而起

天空被捅破无数的窟窿，千疮百孔的世界

从此难以复原

但无人感到危险，我们童年嬉戏的河流与水

今天已经变成了著名的品牌，饱含着添加剂

充满诗意的水只存在于童话之中

今天的水变成了一场又一场战争

诸如南沙群岛，水在子弹中泛着红光

在硝烟中变换着身份

今天起来跑步，忽然之间抬头看见树木

感到十分亲切，久违之后的树木

华盖如云，风声穿过密集的树叶

发出动听的音乐

一直绕梁不绝

______________  

Read: Bodhisattva Ridge – Poetry from China