Ready to Be the Lover She Remembers Forever
~Hsia Yü, translated from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury
You are a Dog I am Your Bitch
The gods are everywhere
Prayer gets you nowhere
The cockiest of all is the dog
He has no interest in finding himself
He finds himself a bite to eat and then he finds another dog
He sniffs about he wags his tail
And I interpret
What he says is this: perfect!
I am a dog you are my bitch
你是狗我是你的母狗
眾神無處不在
祈禱一無所獲
最屌是狗
狗並不想尋找自我
牠找吃的然後找另隻狗
牠聞聞牠搖著尾巴
我替牠翻譯
牠說的是：真好
我是狗你是我的母狗
Who Needs Action
Like the fashion designer
Who explains how his 200-meter folded crepe
Cloak took 2000 hours the total for the satin chiffon
Dress some 3300 hours when you tally in the hand-stitched embroidering
Sometimes you have to pull the whole thing apart and start again from scratch
If you need a metaphor
That’s a really good metaphor
Though I’m still not sure what it’s good for
Who Needs Action
就像是服裝設計師
解釋他的200公尺長的薄紗縐摺
斗篷花了他2000個小時至於緞面雪紡
衣服加上手工刺繡總時數竟高達3300小時
有時還得全數拆掉重來
如果您要一個比喻
這是一個很好的比喻
但是我還沒想到有些甚麼剛好適合呢
Running Toward Each Other in Slow Motion
As if we were planning a bank heist
And laundering the money together
Or putting on a talent show at least
Everyone’s obliged to be on intimate terms
And treat all the people who come like family
The bigger the family the easier it gets to get things done
That’s how the whole terrorist shebang got started
By addressing each person as if they were kin
Relatives from everywhere are running toward each other in slow motion
The whole lot wrapped in the cloak of human kindness
As if they all shared the same life insurance fund
Everyone’s so fond of being one big family
Which is so strange
I’ve been under the impression lately that everyone was more or less a leftist
以慢動作跑向彼此
好像為了最後要一起搶個銀行
然後一起洗錢
或至少一起開個綜藝節目
大家必須親密無間
把來人都變親戚
那一整套恐怖組織
啟動的整套恐怖范親組稱謂
親戚從每一個方向以慢動作跑向彼此
整各一個慈祥親切籠罩
好像也終於屬於同一家保險公司
大家那麼喜歡大家變成一家人
這真是怪
我還以為最近大家多少是一些左派呢
Translator: Steve Bradbury lives in Taipei, where he edits Full Tilt: a journal of East-Asian poetry, translation and the arts. http://fulltilt.ncu.edu.tw/
