每次都以為這次不算
每次都以為現在的都不是真的
空氣中一塊絲綢割裂的聲音
用最快速度跑進去
躲起來
從縫裡偷看
小聲地說：「下一次好不好？」
當一切都在發生而被意識到
這意識就把發生
從發生中剔除
但為了日後可以說：
「其實⋯⋯」
或者說：
「曾經⋯⋯」
每一次都鄭重地想：
「下一次一定遠比這一次算數。」
從而定義出的
下次的下次
還是準備衝出去的下次
大聲說：
「不算。」
想讓那些物體自行移動
因為不耐煩
果然也就發生了
大家於是看見
一張椅子自行到來
「還是不算。」
懨懨地說：
「連這個不算也不算。」
令物體自行移動
夏宇
Read the Chinese, Simplified translation
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.
