Sunday, March 15, 2009

Poetry by Ma Lan: Where to Sit 坐在哪里

Where to Sit

I sit on a block of ice,
Water beneath me.

I sit in his house.
To the left and right are years carried by the wind like confetti.
I touch some books that are crawling across the floor.
They grow thinner as they trek, form groups,
Collect dust.

I sit outside his house,
Raise my eyes and see the blue sky, white clouds.
He is behind me, criticizing,
“Your beauty has become tears that choke.”

I sit in my own mind,
Remain there for so long
I become a package, a bundle of herbs.

I sit on a wooden fence,
“Mark the boat to find a sunken sword”*
And then return to sit on the block of ice,
The current flowing beneath me.


*This idiom originates from an ancient story of an idiot who drops his sword from a boat, and to recover it, he marks the spot on the boat from which the sword fell, anchors the boat, and dives in (of course he does not find the sword). The story has been interpreted philosophically as a critique of the tendency to apply fixed standards to changing phenomena.

December 28, 1995

坐在哪里


坐在一块冰上
下面是水

坐在他的家里
左右是花纸纷飞的岁月
摸了几本在地上走动的书
他们越走越瘦成群集队
上面灰尘满脸

坐在他的家外
抬头是蓝天白云
他在我身后指点我
你的美丽已是呛人的泪水

坐在自己的心里
很长的时间
坐成包裹像堆草本植物

坐在一根木头上
刻舟求剑
然后再回到冰上
下面是滚动的河流

(1995.12.28)

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