Zhao Lihua

Story of My Species

first she was in the ocean
then she climbed ashore
hiding in a crowd of humans…

a policeman divides the crowd
into two kinds
those capable of transforming into animals
and those incapable
it’s almost her turn—
she quickly runs away

on her way she sees a man who is able to turn into a dog
they run together
they jump into a clear lake—
she’s surprised that she is actually an am-
phibious fish good in salt water and fresh water
then they are lost in the forest
and see me who is able to convert into a plant

we team up afterwards laughing
at someone who has changed into a lower-class crawling creature
a dirty salamander
very nasty
then we run into a boy who has become a moon
but can only rise as high as a tree
and can’t even stay there long before
falling down

我的族类故事

她先是在海里
后来爬上岸
混淆在人群中

一个警察
正在把这群人分为
能够变成动物
和不能变成动物
的两种人
快轮到她了
她飞快地逃出来

她在奔跑的途中遇到一个能变成狗的人
他们一起逃
他们还一起跳入一片清澈的湖中
她奇怪自己居然是一条
在咸水和淡水中两栖的鱼
后来他们在森林中迷路
遇到能够变成植物的我

后来我们结成团队
一起嘲笑过一个变成低等爬行生物的人
一个肮脏的蝾螈
龌龊极了
后来还遇到一个能变成月亮的男孩
他变成的月亮顶多能升到树梢那么高
并且撑不了几分钟
就掉下来

Author: Zhao Lihua

Zhao Lihua (b. 1964 in Hebei) is a controversial poet in China, known as the Mother of Pear Flower Poetry, named as a parody of her name “Lihua” which is homophonic with Pear Flower. Pear Flower poems are typically short and simple, in daily spoken language, but her Pear Flower poems are witty and intentionally opposing the high “intellectual” style. Her most well-known poem is Coming to Tennessee Alone: “No doubt / the pancake I’ve made / tastes best / under the entire sky”. After she made a big scene in 2006 with this poem and received huge attention as well as merciless criticism from the public, she quit poetry writing and founded Pear Flower Commune, a community of free-spirited artists, and supported herself by teaching art. The poem presented here was written in the 1990s when she was the editor of the Poetry Magazine of Hebei province in China.

Translation: Ming Di

Plume: Issue #126 February 2022