无题
眼镜，一副眼镜
我用了一副。W
有时我会注意量词。
我的虚幻感来自哪里
眼镜放进抽屉之后
抽屉关上，再打开
眼镜就不见了
半个月，我走出房间
撞见一只猫三次
它的毛一次比一次柔顺
我差一点迷失在细节里
但有些猫已经不用再问候了
对抽屉最后的印象也仅仅是关上
当我问一个人这是什么花时她满怀幸福说这是唎叭花
untitled
glasses, a pair of glasses
I used the term ‘a pair’. See, W.
sometimes I do pay attention to technical terms my feeling of unreality, where does it come from?
after putting the glasses in the drawer
the drawer shut, opened again
the glasses are gone
three times in a fortnight
walking out of my room
I bump into a cat
its fur feels softer each time
I almost lose myself in details but there are some cats one no longer needs to greet
final impression of the drawer: it’s simply closed
when I ask someone, what kind of flower is this? she replies joyfully: this is morning glory
As part of our collaborative translation process, translator Dave Haysom explained that in Chinese, the ‘measure word’ qualifies a noun, rather like a collective noun in English: a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese. It could also be something like a loaf of bread, or a stick of gum. ‘Untitled’ by Rong Yu pulls our attention into details in a playful way: ‘See… sometimes I do pay attention to technical terms.’ The poet almost gets lost in details, but not quite: sometimes there is no deep meaning and the drawer is simply closed. We enjoyed experimenting with tenses and repetitions in the poem as we worked on it in English, keeping to its conversational tone and its leaps from one image to the next. The poem ends with a flourish, which, although it might carry a playful sexual undertone in English, in Chinese simply glories in the name of a flower!
Miriam Nash, Workshop Facilitator
Untitled
glasses, a measure word of glasses
I used measure word. Wow
sometimes I do pay attention to the measure word where does my feeling of unreality come from?
after putting the glasses in the drawer
shut the drawer, open it again
the glasses are gone
within a fortnight, leaving my room
I bump into a cat three times
each time its fur is softer than the last
I almost get lost in details but there are some cats to whom it is no longer necessary to send greetings
my final impression of the drawer is merely that it is shut
when I ask someone what kind of flower this is she joyfully tells me this is morning glory