Poem
陳育虹
〈星期天〉
這是一個閒置的
星期天 不用上教堂
不用買菜
不用澆盆景 花已經枯萎
巴赫已經奏完最後的
變奏 沒有
工人敲門 水泥牆已經砌好
星際大戰又開始上演
這該是原力覺醒的年代 不是
完結篇 天空擁擠如常
沒有天使降臨如雨
多海嘯的海岸線
多棺槨的國界
地鐵會不會再次
槍響 貓在暖爐旁
她雪白的雪一樣的身體會不會融化
Chen Yuhong
SUNDAY
this is a free
Sunday I don’t have to go to church
no shopping to do
no plants to water the flowers are already wilted
already finished bach the last one
variation there are no workers
in front of the door the walls of cement are already erected
star wars is running again
it’s not the time of the force awakens
the latest episode it is busy in the air as usual
there are no angels descending like rain
a seacoast with many tsunamis
a land border with many coffins
will shots sound again in the subway
the kitty lies beside the stove
will her body melt like snow so white?
Translation Silvia Marijnissen
Taiwanese Chen Yuhong (1952-) writes mostly timeless poems full of stillness,
light, water, moon, love , hope and life questions. Although this poem is very peaceful
begins with a peaceful Sunday, suddenly the nasty things that are happening in the world intrude
happen into the living room. The contrast between the world inside and outside is great.
How should or can a human being deal with that? With the question in the last line –
will the cat’s white body melt? – the poet seems to want to say: everything is
possible, we don’t know what all awaits us in life.
(Translation from the collection De zon verschrompelt tot een witte dwerg, Poëziecentrum, 2022.)
Silvia Marijnissen translated novels by Nobel laureate Mo Yan and by Eileen
Chang, modern poetry by many poets from China and Taiwan, and classic
landscape poetry. Together with Anne Sytske Keijser and Mark Leenhouts, she translated
the 18th-century classic The Dream of the Red Room…. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
