《人民中路二段》rén mín zhōng lù èr duàn people’s central street section two

《人民中路二段》rén mín zhōng lù èr duàn

某些地名
 
mǒu xiē dì míng
 
要下大雨的时候
 
yào xià dà yǔ de shí hou
 
才看得清
 
cái kàn de qīng
 
水珠一点点将它放大
 
shǔi zhū yī diǎn diǎn jiāng tā fang dà
 
放大到任何人
 
fang dà dào rèn hé rén
 
都可以随意出入
 
dōu kě yǐ suí yì chū rù
 
观赏的时候
 
guān shǎng de shí hou
 
不需要用肉眼
 
do not need use naked[=meat] eye
 
水珠再一点点将它
 
shǔi zhū zài yī diǎn diǎn jiāng tā
 
反射出去
 
fǎn shè chū qù
 
映在一块牌子上
 
yìng zài yí kuài pái zi shàng
 
出现：人民中路二段
 
chū xiàn: rén mín zhōng lù èr duàn
 
我在这里把伞撑开
 
wǒ zài zhè lǐ bǎ sǎn chēng kāi
 
水珠就从伞顶滚落下来
 
shǔi zhū jiù cóng sǎn dǐng gǔn luò xià lái
 

people’s central street section two

some place names
can only be seen clearly
in heavy rain
 
beads of water magnify it bit by bit
until it’s so big anyone
can go in and out at will
you can enjoy the sight
with your eyes closed
 
and in the beads of water bit by bit
refracted
reflected on a sign
there it is: people’s central street section two
 
here I open my umbrella
and the beads of water come rolling down
 
 
 

Translation Notes

Yu Youyou is from the Sichuan area, and we were very lucky to have a workshop attendee from Sichuan who could read this poem out loud for us in the correct accent. Our literal translator Dave Haysom also told us that it is about the street Yu Youyou lives on, and that the place name is very ordinary. It is a deceptively simple poem about an everyday epiphany that actually proved difficult to translate due to its blurriness and fluidity. Different interpretations ebbed and flowed – was the speaker looking at the street sign in a puddle; through an umbrella’s water? What is magnified, what is reflected? In the end, opening the umbrella seems to break the spell of the moment – we chose the verb ‘rolling’ rather than falling, partly because it reminded one of our workshop participants of tears.

people’s central street section two

some place names
when will rain heavily
only, can see clearly
 
water droplet[s] bit by bit make it bigger
make so big that anyone
can [enter-exit] at will
when [watching-appreciating]
do not need use naked[=meat] eye
 
water droplet[s] (again) bit by bit make it
reflect out
shine onto a sign
emerge: people’s central street section two
 
I open umbrella here
water droplet[s] from umbrella top fall tumbling down
 
 
 

people’s central street section two

When working on this poem there was a noticeable divide between those members of the workshop who were able to read the original and those who weren’t. However, it was the latter group who were the most active in constructing potential interpretations, while the Chinese readers and I were reduced to being apologetically destructive: “I can’t say exactly what this bit means… but it definitely doesn’t exactly mean that.” I think we could have carried on tweaking our translation for hours, but eventually we ran out of time (and wine) and had to put down our pens.

Dave Haysom

Original Poem by

Yu Yoyo

Translated by

Dave Haysom with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Chinese

Country

China