Mute Back by Hai Zi, translated by Ye Chun


A stranger in a raincoat
comes to the city of drought

(In the sun
his water-country accent is strong)

The sun burns
people’s backs

Only at night
the moon draws faces toward it

The moon is an old mine
in an old poem

Only the stranger in a raincoat
comes to the city of drought

and sees on people’s backs
water rising, the waves of the Yellow River

Only the one who unties the mooring rope
smells of fish and salt

 
 
 
哑脊背

一个穿雨衣的陌生人
来到这座干旱已久的城

(阳光下
他水国的口音很重)

这里的日头直射
人们的脊背

只有夜晚
月亮吸住面孔

月亮也是古诗中
一座旧矿山

只有一个穿雨衣的陌生人
来到这座干旱已久的城

在众人的脊背上
看出了水涨潮,看到了黄河波浪

只有解缆者
又咸又腥

 

 

 

A major Chinese poetic voice, Hai Zi (1964-1989) has a posthumous cult-like status in China. During his brief yet explosive life, he wrote about 250 poems and several epics, portraying an intense mix of illuminating yet complex visions of his difficult society. Hai Zi committed suicide in 1989 by laying himself on a railroad track at Beijing Shanhaiguan.

Ye Chun is the author of two books of poetry, Lantern Puzzle (Tupelo Press, 2014 forthcoming) and Travel Over Water (Bitter Oleander Press, 2005), and a novel in Chinese, Peach Tree In The Sea (People’s Literature Publishing House, 2011). She currently serves as the poetry editor of The Missouri Review and teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Missouri where she is a PhD candidate.