Oars Over Whitecaps: Selected Works of American Chinese Poets — I Wing Press
Three of my poems have been translated into English by Denis Mair and included in Oars Over Whitecaps: Selected Works of American Chinese Poets, edited by Yan Li and Paul Qiu, published by I Wing Press.
Translation is always a crossing — a leap across the abyss of one language into the living body of another. I am grateful to Denis Mair for carrying these poems across with such precision and care, preserving not only the meaning but the breath behind each line.
These three poems — Butterfly, I Want to Live Within Flames, and Solar Eclipse — were written in different seasons of my life, yet they speak to one another. They circle the same questions: what it means to be infinite and bounded at once, to be consumed and illuminated, to wake from a dream you did not know you were inside.
Butterfly
Translated by Denis Mair · Music: Sula & Suno
Do not be afraid to become infinite
do not use words to repair your life
Do not say "beauty this," or "beauty that"
Beauty is always a completely new world
that lights up every grain of dust
Whatever you possess will turn around
and possess you in turn
For no reason and love
like a flower in the wind
opening layer by layer
Like a shadow, follow the sun
in one interval and a thousand sunsets
You call what is oceanic a butterfly
Ah stranger, where will you take me?
蝴蝶
不要害怕成为无限
不要用词语
修补你的生活
不要说，美丽
美丽总是一个全新的词
照亮每一颗尘埃
你占有什么，它都会
反过来将你占有
无因地，像花朵一样去爱
层层叠叠
在风里开放
像一片影子，跟随着太阳
一瞬里有一千次日落
你把蝴蝶叫做大海
陌生人，你要带我去哪
I Want to Live Within Flames
I want to live within flames, with a ring
of flame on my finger, in a room of flame,
within books of flame, there is
a print font with no straight lines.
Half will be body, and half
the melted currency of soul,
neither on the side of life nor death.
Each kind of medicine creates a new sickness,
and higher tongues of flame pounce forth
each time I am gazed at. A stark naked yogi
beats the harsh chill on a snowy peak
resisting the contradictions of desire.
But I will immerse myself in flame
following her emotive dance steps. A secret
that wins transcendence leaves you no choice
我想生活在火焰中
我想生活在火焰中
火焰的指环，火焰的房子，
火之书中
非线性的字体。
将一面是身体
一面是灵魂的硬币熔化，
非生非死。
每种药创造一种新的疾病，
更高的火苗
扑向每一次注视。
赤裸的瑜伽士在雪顶忍耐极寒
抵抗着欲念与矛盾，
而我将在火焰中沉迷
跟随她感性的舞姿。
秘密是超越，而不是选择。
Solar Eclipse
Mexicans once taught me
to observe the sun through obsidian lenses.
Hundreds of millions of solar plasma cells erupt
in high-velocity ejections of coronal mass,
shining through black glass as a soft annular ring,
a smudgy yellow illusion.
Am I also a dream? Has a dazzling god
dreamt me into existence over the past thousand years?
Awakening, like the eclipsed sun reemerging
as I become whole again.
日蚀
墨西哥人曾教我
透过黑曜石片观察太阳。
数亿爆发的耀斑，
高速抛射的日冕物质，
投射成黑石中一轮柔软，
昏黄的幻影。
我也是一个梦吗？
被一个耀眼的神梦了一千年。
如复原的日蚀苏醒，
呢喃着
我又完整了。
You can find my new works on RoseandPoet.com, a vibrant online community for Chinese-language poets.
Oars Over Whitecaps: Selected Works of American Chinese Poets — I Wing Press
Translated by Denis Mair · Edited by Yan Li & Paul Qiu