每次都以为这次不算
每次都以为现在的都不是真的
空气中一块丝绸割裂的声音
用最快速度跑进去
躲起来
从缝里偷看
小声地说：「下一次好不好？」
当一切都在发生而被意识到
这意识就把发生
从发生中剔除
但为了日后可以说：
「其实⋯⋯」
或者说：
「曾经⋯⋯」
每一次都郑重地想：
「下一次一定远比这一次算数。」
从而定义出的
下次的下次
还是准备冲出去的下次
大声说：
「不算。」
想让那些物体自行移动
因为不耐烦
果然也就发生了
大家于是看见
一张椅子自行到来
「还是不算。」
恹恹地说：
「连这个不算也不算。」
令物体自行移动
夏宇
Read the original in Chinese, Traditional
Listen to the original poem read by the poet with background 'noise' by Yan Jun:
Hsia Yü's formal inventiveness, sumptuous musicality and fascination with the pleasures of the flesh and what the late, great Roland Barthes called the "erotics of reading" have made her one of the most admired and beloved poets in the Chinese-speaking world. But these same qualities make her one of the most difficult poets to render into English. I am far too embarrassed to admit how many hours I worked on this particular translation except to say that it was a great deal longer than the poet spent writing the original poem. Not that I'm complaining, mind you; I must have shown her half-a-dozen drafts before I finally ironed out the wrinkles, and she never once complained and (as an "added-value feature") even agreed to record the original poem with the Beijing performance poet and noise musician Yan Jun, who also mixed and mastered the recording.
Hsia Yü is the author and designer of six volumes of groundbreaking verse, notably Pink Noise (2007), a bilingual collection of English-language poems and computer-generated Chinese translations printed on crystal clear vinyl in pink and black ink, and, most recently, Poems, Sixty of Them (2011). 'Now These Objects Will Move by Themselves' is from her fourth book of poetry, Salsa (1999), which is now in its eighth print-run. The appended performance of the Chinese poem was recorded by Hsia Yü and Yan Jun in Taipei in late December and subsequently mixed by Yan Jun in Beijing.
Yan Jun is a Gansu-born, Beijing-based performance poet, writer, and self-professed "improviser and sound hypnotizer," who curates the monthly music events at the Beijing contemporary art centre UCCA and is one of the principal organizers of Mini Midi, China's annual experimental music festival.
Steve Bradbury translates the work of contemporary poets writing in Chinese. His most recent book-length translation, Hsia Yü’s Salsa (Zephyr Press, 2014), was short-listed for the Lucien Stryk Prize. His current project, a translation of Hsia Yü’s Poems, Sixty of Them (2011), received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship last summer.
