Yang Zongze: Five Poems

The Snowless Winter

Snow is the only color in winter

Snow is all colors in winter

Looking up to the sky

to expect a snowfall 

It is a noble sentiment

Looking forward to a snowfall --------

in fact, is expecting you 

to desolate all desires with your pour white cruelty 

Looking forward to a snowfall ---------

also means expecting you 

to return what belongs to death to grave

while offer the spring what belongs to life

The heart expecting a snowfall often loses blood

The eyes expecting a snowfall often go blind

just as the one on his deathbed 

yearning for a beloved one in the distance 

or just as expecting a flicker of hope in despair 

The mind expecting a snowfall is incomparably pious 

as a disciple entering the church 

So, in the days without snow 

it always snows thick and fast in my heart

Only when expecting a snowfall 

can you get close to your own soul

Only in the days when you expect a snowfall

will true tears 

run out of your eyes

Looking forward to a snowfall 

Looking forward to a heavy snowfall ……

 ------ written in Jan. 1996

(translated from the Chinese by the Author)

[中国]

杨宗泽诗作五首

无雪的冬天

雪是冬天唯一的颜色

雪是冬天所有的颜色

仰望蓝天

盼望一场雪

那是一种高贵的情绪

盼雪 ——

其实就是盼望你

用洁白的冷酷萧杀所有的欲望

盼雪 ——

也就是盼望你

把属于死亡的还给坟墓

把属于生命的交给春天

盼雪的心常常失血

盼雪的眸子常常失明

恰如在生命的边缘

苦念着一位远方的亲人

或是在绝望中等待着一丝希望

盼雪的心无比虔诚

一如走进教堂的圣徒

所以，在无雪的日子里

我心里也总是大雪飘飘

只有在盼雪的时候

你才有可能接近自己的灵魂

只有在盼雪的日子里

你的眼里才会流出

真正的泪水

盼望一场雪

盼望一场大雪……

  ------ 1996年1月

Cutting Wheat

1.

Wheat is ripe

The ripe wheat is a sort of temptation

More attractive than female stars’ towering breasts 

I cannot resist that sort of temptation

And walk into the cornfield

To get in a kind of traditional hope with sickles

Together with my fellow countrymen

Whenever in the early morning 

Or at the burning hot noon 

We cutwheat with the same posture

That posture is very graceful 

Seemingly like embracing our wives or sweethearts from behind

That posture is quite ancient 

Which can be traced back to the Iron Age

That posture is very die-hard

Which remains as before for several thousand years 

However, up to today no one has had it become a kind of culture

By abstracting it from common things   

2.

The wheat in the city is ripe 

The wheat in the city always gets ripe one or two days later

Than the wheat in the countryside  

The wheat in the city grows on the TV screen

So the poets in the city

Begin to cut wheat on the TV screen

The poet in the city is quick-minded

They can put that colorful image into lines at any instant

Which soon appear in evening paper or morning paper

With the remuneration

They buy lipstick is for their wives or sweethearts 

The lipstick is as red as  

The blood bleeding out of my fingers kissed by the sickle

3.

The posture of cutting wheat 

Is a kind of posture jointly created by man and sickle

It has nothing to do with walking along a boulevard

It has nothing to do with the pleated skirt waving gracefully

It has nothing to do with the birdcage or fish jar on the balcony

It has nothing to do with dancing while singing like mad in the nightclub

It has nothing to do with the eyes gazing at each other in a music teahouse

The posture of cutting wheat is graceful and moving 

It always stands together with hunger and man’s mouth

written in June 1989, modified in June1998

(translated from the Chinese by the Author)

割麦

1.

麦子熟了

熟透的麦子是一种诱惑

那种诱惑

比明星们高耸的乳房更具魅力

我经不住那种诱惑

走进麦田  举起镰刀

和父老乡亲一起

收割那种世代相传的希冀

无论晨曦里

还是烈日下

我们都用一种姿势割麦

那种姿势很优美

像从背后搂抱自己的妻子或是情人

那种姿势很古老

至少可以追溯到春秋的铁器时代

那种姿势也很顽固

几千年了都没有改变

不过，至今还没有人

将它上升或者抽象为文化

2

城里的麦子也熟了

城里的麦子比乡下的麦子

总是晚熟那么一两天

城里的麦子长在电视屏幕上

城里的诗人

开始在电视屏幕上收割小麦

那个时候

我已经在村口的场院上晾晒麦粒

城里的诗人才思敏捷

他们很快就把那些斑斓的图像变成铅字

印到晚报或是早报的夹缝里

然后用稿酬买一支口红

送给妻子或是情人

口红是猩红色的

如同我手指上被镰刀吻出的血

3．

割麦的姿势

是人和镰刀共同创造的一种姿势

它和林荫道上的悠悠漫步无关

它和蝶翅般舞动的百褶裙无关

它和阳台上的鸟笼或者鱼缸无关

它和夜总会的劲歌狂舞无关

它和音乐茶座里脉脉对视的眸子无关

割麦的姿势优美而动人

它只和人类的口以及饥饿站在一起

写于1989年6月

1998年6月修改

If...

If there were only one kind of tree and one kind of flower in the world,

If there ware only one bird in the world, singing one song only,

If there were only one religion and one belief in the world,

If there were only one language and cultural context in the world,

If so, the world will......

If a nation lacks the support of religious belief, or equates certain doctrine with religion,

If we cannot hear the voice of independent thinking, or this voice is overridden by the context of power and secular prejudice,

If the eyes of the whole society are focused on money, wealth, luxury cars, luxury homes, ease and pleasure,

If most of the people realize that they have no dream to be dreamed, after waking up out of a dream,

If so, this nation or state will……

 written in Dec.2022

(translated from the Chinese by the Author)

如果……

如果世界上只有一种树，只开一种花
如果世界上只有一种鸟，就唱一支歌
如果世界上只有一种宗教，一种信仰
如果世界上只有一种语言和文化语境

如是，这个世界就……

如果一个民族缺失宗教信仰的濡养，或是把某种主义等同于宗教
如果一个时代听不到独立思考的声音，或者是这种声音被权力语境和世俗偏见所覆盖
如果全社会的眼睛都盯着金钱、财富、豪车、豪宅、安逸、享乐
如果大多数人在梦醒之后，发现自己再也无梦可梦

如是，这个民族或国家就……

         2022年12月

 A Plane in Dream 

I made a plane in my dream

When waking up

I found my sky was so small 

That it could barely accommodate a sparrow 

I lay in bed

thinking back to that grand plane

In the kitchen, my wife shouted:

"Get up, eat a bowl of noodles,

Then go to work for money."

written in 2011

(translated from the Chinese by the Author)

梦里飞机

我在梦里造了一架飞机
醒来后却发现——
我的那隅天空
只容得下一只麻雀

我躺在床上落寞
回想那架飞机的雄姿
厨房里，老婆喊道:
“快起来吧，吃碗面条，
上班，挣钱去。”

2011年

The Red and the Black

When reading The Red and the Black

I will have a far-fetched association of two buzzwords 

on the Internet in China today:

One is called "low Red."

One is called "Advanced Black."

It is said that the two buzzwords

Fighting against each other openly and secretly

* The Red and the Black, a book written by Stendhal (1783 - 1842), an outstanding French writer whose original name: Marie-Henri Beyle.

*Low Red, Advanced Black: two sorts of ideology and political stands in China today.

written in Dec. 2022

(translated from the Chinese by the Author)

红与黑

想起司汤达的《红与黑》

我竟牵强附会地想起

当下网络里的两个流行词：

一个叫“低级红”

一个叫“高级黑”

据说，这两个词汇

正在忽明忽暗地较劲

      2022年12月

Yang Zongze (1953 ---  ), his pen name: Narrow Path; poet and translator; born in Pingdu City, Shandong Province, P. R. China; graduated from English Language and Literature Department of Shandong Normal University; retired middle school teacher; non-partisan; member of China Writers Association, one of the representative poets of the postimagist poetry school in China. In December 1999, he was selected as the Best Translator of 1999 by the American Society of World Writers and Artists. Thirty-two books of his have been published at home and abroad, including a collection of poems called My Romantic Season, collections of translated poems called Selected Poems of He Jingzhi, Selected Poems of Jidi Majia, Selected Poems of Sang Hengchang and Selected Poems of Emmanuel MAHIEU. 

Yang Zongze's poetry is well-known for its attention to life and humanity, reality and social problems and the people living in bottom of society, but his poetry and poetic concept have been being rejected and suppressed by the so-called mainstream ideology  and cultural context.