Poetry by Ma Lan: Dialogue 对话

Dialogue

Over there is an ancient land.
Many heads are flying,
One of them hangs on mine, suspended in perpetuity.

There’s a market:
Eat, drink, and be merry; brawl over love and beauty.
My amorous rival lives inside my body, hiding by day, budding at night.

That, there, is a film.
You and the actors engage in a massacre.
You protect the pretend dentist, and dentures he inserts are taken for real.

I hold a rose in my hands
On Valentine’s Day
As if bearing aloft some cabbage leaves
To challenge earth's gravity.
It seems the apple will fall,
An indicator there’s never been utter nothingness.

March 2001

对话


那是个古国
有许多人头在飞
还有一颗挂在我的头上，永垂不朽

那是个市场
吃喝玩乐，打情骂俏
我的情敌就在我体内，昼伏夜行

那是场电影
你和他们杀戮
你保护了改行的牙医，假牙真做

我手拿玫瑰花
在情人节
像高举一把白菜
挑战地球的引力
似乎苹果要掉下来
告诉我们从来没有一无所有

2001，3