Tuesday, January 25, 2011

throwin' her voice

Well, here I am, back to the blog after quite a long silence, caused by, in succession: illness, graduate school applications, reading a ton of theoretical whatnots, a trip to japan, more grad school apps, and the Fulbright midyear conference. The second half of my grant will be much more focused on actually producing translations than was the first, and I'm going to tie myself to this blog for some accountability. It'll be great.

Today's poet is Xia Yu (夏宇), the pen name of Huang Qingqi (黃慶綺), born in 1956, still living, and one of Taiwan's great post-modernist poets. I was recommended to read her in close succession by both a Taiwanese friend and the Fulbright Taiwan director, so I figured it must be done. I picked up her 1990 book "Ventriloquy" the other day and have been really enjoying it so far, so below are relatively quick attempts at the first three poems in the book. They are definitely tough to understand in the original, so translation is not a straightforward task, but hey, might as well give it a shot. She's quickly found her way onto my list of Taiwan favorites, and I'm excited to read/translate more. Hmm.


腹語術

我走錯房間
錯過了自己的婚禮.
在牆壁唯一的隙縫中, 我看見
一切行進之完好他穿白色的外套
她捧著花, 儀式,
許諾, 親吻
背著它: 命運, 我苦苦練就的腹語術
(舌頭那匹溫暖的水獸  馴養地
在小小的水族箱中  蠕動)
那獸說: 是的, 我願意.


ventriloquy

I went to the wrong room
and missed my own wedding.
through the only crack in the wall, I see
it all march on perfectly.   he wears a white tux
she carries flowers; ceremony,
promises, a kiss
carrying it: destiny, my hard-practiced ventriloquy
(tongue that warm water-beast   trained
in its tiny aquarium   squirming)
that beast speaks:  yes, I do.

----------------------

隱匿的王后和她不可見的城市

在她的國度, 一張
牽強附會的地圖.
出走的銅像不被履行的
遺書和諾言識破的陷阱
混淆的線索和消滅中的指紋以及
所有遺失的眼鏡和傘等
組成的國度.
她暗中畫著虛線, 無限
擴大的版圖.
一座分類詳盡的失物博物館, 好極了.
另外呢, 就是那些命運以及
歷史都還未曾顯現跡象的時刻吧
她草擬了秋天的徒步計劃 (目的不明
但將在每一個十字路口右轉)
寫好一個輕歌劇
餵了貓
寫了信
打一個蝴蝶結
在永不悔悟的心


the hidden empress and her unseen city

in her kingdom, one flat
map strains for interpretation.
a fleeing bronze statue, unfinished
deathbed notes and pitfalls seen through promises
mixed up clues and vanishing fingerprints, along with
all the lost glasses, umbrellas, and so on
these compose the kingdom.
in secret she paints dotted lines, a limitless
expanding territory.
a thoroughly catalogued Museum of Lost Things, wonderful.
besides, isn’t it all just the fates and
yet-unseen ciphers of history
she’s drawn up plans for the walking of autumn  (goals unclear
but will at every crossroads turn right)
written a light opera
fed the cat
scrawled the note
and tied up a butterfly knot
on this never-repenting heart

----------------------

偵探小說疏忽的細節

有人喜歡咳嗽有人更喜歡在音樂會裏
咳嗽尤其是協奏曲尤其是第2章節有人則忍住
(有人贊成壓抑) 至於噴嚏, 她說:
每當進入一個新的空間在最接近大門的
一張椅子上坐下來首先壓縮了椅墊和
椅墊間的空氣再以微微不安的姿勢振動椅背
我在心底深處發出一組鳴吧吧吧鳴
吧吧吧的調子如果此時有一些餅他就會
帶著餅進來以一種完全不知情的
神氣 (不知那些餅由何製成以及為何
帶餅而來) 然後我們就和好之類了
而在三度引用自己的警句之餘
仍然劇烈的成為方圓百哩內七個戴棒球小帽
中間的一個的他無礙宣佈了各類
不期然而達致的
親密關係的罅隙我在心底深處發出
嘎嘎嗚嗚啦的雜音在深處心底深處
完全我們互相彼此的瞭然所方出的幽微的
, 的光, 的光
光就在空氣中啟動了最神秘的暗流並以
極深刻的謙遜姿態到達激起三至四個噴嚏


details overlooked in the detective novel

some people like to cough some people even more like at a concert
to cough especially if it’s a concerto especially in the 2nd movement some people just hold back
(some people approve of oppression) as for sneezing, she says:
whenever entering a new place sit down atop the one chair nearest the main
entrance to first compress the air in the space between seat cushion and
seat cushion and then with slightly restless posture vibrate against the chairback
I from my heart-bottom’s deep place send out a birdcry crowd of ming ba ba ba ming
ba ba ba melodies if at this time there are some cookies he just will
carrying cookies enter wearing a kind of completely ingenuous
expression (unknowing where those cookies were produced and why
he came bearing cookies) and then we just are reconciled like so
and in 3D quoting the leftovers of my own admonitions
still fiercely becoming within a hundred meters seven wearing baseball caps
amidst them one he unimpeded declares all sorts of
unexpectedly brought expressions of
the rift of intimacy I from my heart-bottom’s deep place send out
honk honk hoot hoot nonsense static from my deep place heart-bottom’s deep place
complete we mutually each other watch then from all directions emits a faint
light, a light, a light
a light in the air starts the most mysterious undercurrent and then with
an extremely deep modest posture arrives stirring up three to four sneezes