Glenn Stowell 
Translator

on Lyrikline: 14 poems translated

from: chinese to: english

Original

Translation

灣灣御姐

chinese | Hu Xudong

她的鹿腿上繃著青苔,
從右側走進了這滴雨。
我那時在雨滴的左邊,
把烏雲捲成一根香菸,
吸著鋒面上減速的秒。
她踩著雨滴里明滅的
木棉,山間的舊街巷
隨柔膚下窸窣的靜脈
一道蜿蜒,從黑皮靴
延伸到清明節的臀線:
在這魔鏡般的雨滴里,
我只能一秒接一秒地
吸盡了她潮濕的身體,
把那鹿腿溶入從街角
突然流到我肺葉里的
白茫茫的野薑花之海。

© Hu Xudong
Audio production: DJS Art Foundation

BAY WOMAN

english

Moss stretches across her thin legs,
she comes into a raindrop from the right.
I’m on the raindrop’s left
being swept into cigarettes by black clouds.
The coldfront of absorption slows time.
She steps on the flashing cotton inside
the raindrop, the old mountain neighborhood
in the soft skin, a rustling vein
wriggling together, from leather boots
toward the Tomb Cleaning Festival butt line:
in the raindrop’s magic mirror
I’ve only one second, a single second.
Drink up her damp body,
from that deer leg in the street.
Suddenly it flows backward to my lungs,
the vast white field blossoms into a sea of ginger lilies.

© Translated by Glenn Stowell

波索阿苏尔

chinese | Hu Xudong

妹的吊带吊我心,吊得我
易动、马虎、年轻、爱一大早出游。
我光着身子,爬上滑溜溜的石壁
挨瀑布砸。水有大力,我有情。

瀑布下,一潭秋水居然坏到有一半
伸进了岩洞。我扔了块石头,
从黑暗深处的北京的吊带背心里
飞出来几百只鸟和我抢防晒霜。

(注:波索阿苏尔,Po. o Azul,意为“蓝池”,巴西利亚西北50公里荒野中一小石潭。)

© Hu Xudong
Audio production: DJS Art Foundation

POSO AZUL

english

Sister’s suspenders hold my heart, hold me,
pent up, careless, young, loving to go out at dawn.
My bare body climbs up the slick stone wall
to endure the waterfall’s smashing. The water has strength, I have passion.

Under the waterfall a deep pool shockingly splits in half
and stretches toward the cave in the cliff. I throw a stone,
from the dark abyss of a Beijing-style vest’s suspenders.
Several hundred birds fly out to fight with me over sunscreen. 

© Translated by Glenn Stowell

圣若热

chinese | Hu Xudong

石头听说了石头,瀑布洗净了瀑布,
二十多个瀑布下来,太阳一泻如注。
犰狳出洞的时候,山大了、水累了,
水里婀娜着的大好的青春凉透心了。

整个峡谷的热都转移到了村子里边。
此地吊床林立,大麻香飘三十里远。
格瓦拉装束的鲍勃. 马利叫住了我,
邀我同去,点黑姑娘肚皮上的篝火。

© Hu Xudong
Audio production: DJS Art Foundation

SRO JORGE

english

The stone heard about the stone, the waterfall washed the waterfall,
twenty something waterfalls cascade, the sun pours out as if interjecting.
When the armadillo comes from its cave, the hills vast, the water weary,
the water’s surface, graceful as youth, penetrates the heart with its cold.

All of the canyon’s heat finally shifts inside the village.
Here, hundreds of hammocks, pot smoke floats off for thirty miles.
Bob, wearing Che Guevara clothes. Mario calls out to me,
asks me to go with him to light the bonfire on a black girl’s belly.

© Translated by Glenn Stowell

11月24日

chinese | YAN Jun

外星人不知道他们不存在

冬天  我们谈论文学
喝着热茶  睫毛笼罩在蒸汽里

外星人像一张废纸
静静地飞过窗口  飞向哈尔滨

关于城市  我还记得  巴尔扎克说过
没有风  要柳树干什么

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

November 24th

english

An alien has no idea that it doesn’t exist

In winter       we discuss literature
drinking hot tea       Eyelashes shroud themselves in steam

An alien like a sheet of scrap paper
slowly flies over the window       toward Harbin

I remember       what De Balzac once said       regarding cities
without wind       what use is the willow?

© translated by Glenn Stowell

阿尔博阿多尔

chinese | Hu Xudong

我只愿意独自呆在诗里,诗独自
呆在海里,海独自呆在有风的夜里。
一夜之后,阳光拖着水光上天,
嘈杂的人群从细小的白沙里走出来换气。

换完气的细小的人群回到嘈杂的白沙里,
又是一天,地平线把太阳拖进水底。
海从夜里裸泳了出去,诗从海里裸泳了出去,
我从一首诗裸泳到了另一首诗里。

(注:阿尔博阿多尔,Arpoador,意为“鲸鱼叉”,里约热内卢的一个小海滩,夹在著名的伊巴奈玛海滩和科帕卡帕纳海滩之间的犄角上。)

© Hu Xudong
Audio production: DJS Art Foundation

ARPOADOR

english

I only wish to stay alone inside the poem, the poem
alone inside the sea, the sea alone inside the windy night.
After the night, sunshine dragging the light in the water toward the sky,
the noisy crowd walks out from the expanse of sand to breathe.

After breathing for a bit the tiny crowd goes back to the noisy sand,
and another day, the sun is dragged underwater by the horizon.
The sea swims out of the night, the poem swims out of the sea,
I swim out naked from the poem and into another poem.

© Translated by Glenn Stowell

江畔

chinese | Hu Xudong

我抱着一条江睡了一夜。
我忘了我们是怎么认识的了,
总之,它流上了堤岸、
漫过了街道、涌进了电梯,
来到了我的房间。一条江,
一条略显肥胖但却有着
桥梁的锁骨、一条水流缓慢
但满脑子都是敏捷的游鱼、
一条在江中宅了一天但夜间
仍会失眠的江,就这么
被我轻轻地抱着,听我讲
千里之外的海、万里之外的
人世间。很快,它身上的
每一滴水都闭上了眼睛,
它脑中的每一条游鱼都变得
和星辰一样安静。我忘了
我握着它柔软的波涛
睡了几生几世。一觉醒来,
我拉开窗帘,看见
那条娇美的、懒洋洋的江
在阳光下流淌着恩爱。

© Hu Xudong
Audio production: DJS Art Foundation

THE RIVER BANK in Chongqing

english

I am holding a river and sleep through the night.
I forget how it is that we met:
in short, it flows down the bank,
freely down into the street, overflowing elevators,
coming to my room. A river,
its outline flowing and fat but
with a collarbone, a meandering stream
but all full of nimble fish—
the river stays in all day but
still cannot sleep at night, just now
holding it softly, while it hears my speech about
the ocean a thousand miles away, about the secular world
a thousand miles away. Very quickly it’s at hand,
every drop of water closes up the eyes,
in the brain every swimming fish becomes
as calm as the stars are. I forgot
I was holding its soft waves
sleeping through several generations. I wake up
pull open the window curtains to see
the gorgeous and meandering river
inside the sunshine flowing down with reciprocal love.

© Translated by Glenn Stowell

11月18日

chinese | YAN Jun

我成为自己的标题
海边  我沉入自己的沙滩

甜蜜的夜总会

电台里的海  海的尸体
一夜一夜地荡漾

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

November 18th

english

I become my own caption
Beside the sea       I immerse myself in sand

Sugar-sweet nightclubs

In the sea of radio waves       the ocean’s corpse
ripples night after night

© translated by Glenn Stowell

10月25日

chinese | YAN Jun

今天  枣树不是枣树

一些冰冷的弧线
经过了剧场  像风

我走进电梯  我已经失败了
还要再失败一次

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

October 25th

english

Today       the date tree is not a date tree

A few ice-cold arches
pass through the theatre       like wind

I enter the elevator       I’ve already lost
And will lost once again

© translated by Glenn Stowell

9月25日

chinese | YAN Jun

梦见愤怒:一颗桃子裂开
梦见脊背:秋风穿行

我召唤体内的蜂群

我解释了一些梦
它们在床上等着我

蜜的沼泽  一片寂静

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

September 25th

english

In a dream of anger: a peach pared open
In the dream of a back: autumn wind gusts on

I beckon the body’s bee colony

I’ve explained a few dreams
They’re on the bed waiting for me

Wetlands of honey       A slice of quiet

© translated by Glenn Stowell

9月15日

chinese | YAN Jun

我喝茶喝掉了脑子
此刻  就像一片树叶
在半空中停止

吸收着他人的坠落

我奔向这树叶  这树
这片人工草坪
最后  是这无处不在的笑容

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

September 15th

english

I drink tea       drain the mind
This moment       like a leaf
halted in the air

absorbing another’s failure

I rush toward these leaves       this tree
this artificial lawn
Finally       it’s these smiles caught everywhere

© translated by Glenn Stowell

8月29日

chinese | YAN Jun

国际修理日:我停在一堆电线里

蓝色的错误  红色的错误
二楼没有灯  三楼也没有

我追随着电

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

August 29th

english

International repair day: I stop in a pile of wires
blue mistakes       red mistakes
The 2nd floor has no light       neither does the 3rd
I’m washed in the wake of electricity

© translated by Glenn Stowell

8月27日

chinese | YAN Jun

塑料袋盛着狂风
他的脸  停在窗外

我打开灯  一句外语:
他们是对的

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

August 27th

english

A plastic bag brims with wind
His face       parked beyond the pane

I turn on the light       A foreign verse:

they were right

© translated by Glenn Stowell

8月12日

chinese | YAN Jun

我的被子是一头怪兽

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

August 12th

english

My quilt is a monster

© translated by Glenn Stowell

7月8日,大汗淋漓

chinese | YAN Jun

不过是一些雨  一些窗帘
小区连绵不断  擦去了荒野

一首反动的歌
要给倒立的人听

我等待着  做一个人
我回到昨天
重新打了最后一个电话

© YAN Jun
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, 2012

July 8th, dripping with sweat

english

It’s no more than a little rain       a few curtains
The apartment complexes endlessly       erasing the wilderness

A reactionary song
for those who are upside down

I’m waiting       to be a man
I return to yesterday
and make the phone call again

© translated by Glenn Stowell