Yeo Wei Wei 
Translator

on Lyrikline: 5 poems translated

from: الصينية to: الانجليزية

Original

Translation

做家务

الصينية | Teck Seng Chow

忘记一个人
就一直走
一直拖
像吸尘器
吸走生活的噪音
像电熨斗搁着躺着就忘了
水龙头忘记关水
像脑中旋律第99次响起
然后忘记一首歌的歌名
像窗外草地孩童风筝断线
你看不见  线末端的小手
操场升起众多旗帜
舌头遗忘语言    唇遗弃齿
像忘记该念的信约
像房门忘了关
然后关灯出门 

© Teck Seng Chow
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station

Housework

الانجليزية

To forget someone
Just keep on walking
Keep on dragging your feet
Like a vacuum cleaner
Sucking away life’s white noise
Like the iron put aside on its side and forgotten
The tap left running, forgotten, not turned off
Like a tune that sounds in the brain for the 99th time
And then forgetting the title of a song
Like the thread of a kite flown by a child on the grass beyond the window breaking
You can’t see 
                 the end of the thread in the tiny hand
On the field many flags are raised
The tongue loses and forgets language 
                                 abandoning lips and teeth
Like forgotten vows that should have been pronounced
Like forgetting to close the door
And turning the light off before going out 

Translated by Yeo Wei Wei

每天的功课

الصينية | Teck Seng Chow

每个月台 地铁都须顽固停靠

短暂驻留

每回不能起死回生    的爱情

      都笃定电压急救

每种在人间流通的语言

     都为时间用脏

每个句子你都在该与不该处

 留下句点

每件惊天地、泣鬼神的国家大事

           都在失措的版面与转角被嘲讽

每道我身体中  漆黑里的闪电

            都是我心脏旁粼粼的白骨 在游移

每次明天的大雨

               我都决定用阳光收起泪光

© Teck Seng Chow
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station

Everyday Lessons

الانجليزية

Every platform where MRT trains stubbornly rest against

                                                                       Becoming temporary residents

 

Every unrevivable romance

                                              Will be assuredly defibrillated

 

Every manner of rumour in circulation

                                                             Has been defiled by time

 

Every sentence shows your having left, at appropriate and inappropriate places,

                                                                                                                                full stops

 

Every earthshattering, soul-shaking piece of national news

                  Has been satirized in panic-stricken press layouts and street corners

 

Every bolt inside my body           of lightning inside the dark

              occurs when the crystalline white bones beside my heart    are wavering

 

For every tomorrow’s rainstorm

                                                      I have decided to use sunshine to gather the tears

Translated by Yeo Wei Wei

散步乃悟之三重境界

الصينية | Teck Seng Chow

只有遇见微风
我才见过时空背后的虚无  

只要你我再次目光交接
我方深知美丽会落在错误之处  

若非一只鸟飞过
我将无法领略羽毛之轻与天空的伟大 

© Teck Seng Chow
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station

Three States of Reverie On A Walk

الانجليزية

Only on encountering the breeze
Did I see the nothingness behind the outdated

Only when your eyes and mine meet and embrace once more 
Would I then see how beauty winds up in error  

If not for a bird flying by
I would not be able to penetrate the lightness of feather, the greatness of sky

Translated by Yeo Wei Wei

我们对着鱼缸说国语

الصينية | Teck Seng Chow

我对着鱼缸说国语
每一个元音像风打在镜里
每一次顿挫像蚊子在跳舞

对下腕表,每一秒都风起云涌  

1950英语是殖民地语 
        想象着国语       我们来讲马来语
1965国语: 英语      马来语     双语?  

地图到处烟云,每一处如何安身立命  

联邦       州府       马来亚       马来西亚
台湾       中华民国
石叻坡       星州       新加坡
请跟我念
国家——国       家
你有你的    我有我的国语
字正腔圆,绝非官话  

我们坐在圆桌旁练习说国语
鱼在圆圆的鱼缸嘟着圆圆的金鱼嘴  

鱼如舌在口腔中,蠕动如蛇  

有时圆唇,有时不圆唇
圆唇时
是鱼       是语       是马来语       是 Ü  

不圆唇时
是  ikan  是  English  是  Inilah Singapura   

       _______ 

注:
ikan, 马来语,鱼。
Inilah Singapura, 马来语,这里是新加坡。

© Teck Seng Chow
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station

We Speak to Fish Using National Language

الانجليزية

I speak to the fish in the bowl in the National Language 
Each vowel beating like wind against glass 
Each accent dancing like mosquitoes 

My watch shows each second rising, teeming, like wind and smoke 

1950’s English is the colonial language 
             Imagining the National Language, let us speak Malay  
1965’s National Language: English? Malay? Both? 

Every place on the map chokes with smoke, where is there a safe place for us? 

Straits Settlements      Federation of Malaya        Malaya      Malaysia  
Taiwan      Republic of China 
Temasek      Singapura       Singapore  
Please read after me 
Nation — NAT-ION 
You have your National Language, I have mine  
Each tongue is alive, free from officialese 

We sit at a round table practising the National Language
The fish in the round round bowl pout with round round goldfish mouths 

The fish are tongues in mouths, squirming like snakes 

Sometimes with lips shaped like “O”, other times no When the mouth is round:
it is yu, it is language, it is Bahasa Melayu, it is U 

When the mouth isn’t round:
it is ikan, it is English, it is Inilah Singapura

       _______

* Ikan is Malay for “fish”. 

Inilah Singapura translates into “This is Singapore”. 

Translated by Yeo Wei Wei

纪念日

الصينية | Teck Seng Chow

黑夜的寂寞只有夜空知道
寂寞的热闹只有黑暗知道  

烟火的璀璨只有千万眼睛知道
万家灯火只有孤独的萤火虫知道  

而昨天的余味只有今天知道
今日的结尾只有明日知道 

© Teck Seng Chow
Audio production: The Literary Centre and Sing Lit Station

Anniversary

الانجليزية

The night’s loneliness is known only by the night sky
The bustle of loneliness is known only by the dark

The brilliance of fireworks is known only by thousands of eyes
The lights in ten thousand households are only known by lonely fireflies  

While the residual taste of yesterday is known only by today
The ending of today is known only by tomorrow 

Translated by Yeo Wei Wei