Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Fan Jinghua: Westbound Train

  Westbound Train

Monotonous and die-hard determined
Like centuries of moralities
On two parallel lines as perfect science smooth at every turn
The train incessantly wheels forward in time
And in the unfaithfulness and forgetfulness left behind by time
It scales up a slope near Mountain-Ocean Pass
Escaping the soon-to-shine dawn light
Westward, to the termini in Poland, Germany and Netherlands
The train has never slowed down or stopped for any poetic line
And it forges on and breaks languages into blood-soaked
Pieces that slide down the yellow-stained ceramic hole in the toilet
And one piece covers one gravel between railway ties
Only the one with a small flag at the rear of the train
Sees at irregular intervals blood-wrapped gravels vanishing fast
Passengers are whole and safe in the carriages
As the train charges a mountain and rushes into a tunnel
Dissolving in its own smoke
From the far, a viewer loses it temporarily
And doubts his own vision
When the train flushes out again
Like an always brand new ferry across Phlegethon
Toward a barbed and walled chimney
The smell of char is already fading in the sky
In the afterglow, the rails are shiny with red hue
Like bayonets thrusting into a cauldron heart
           Feb. 9, 2008

Note: Mountain-Ocean Pass 山海关 is the first pass the so-called Asia-Europe continental bridge faces when it starts at the Bohai Sea from China. One poet called Haizi 海子 (1964-1989) committed suicide near the Pass in March 1989, who is now martyrized as The contemporary poet by Chinese.

  西行列车

单调、笃速的坚定
像无数世纪的道德
火车一门心思地前行,穿行在时间
与时间留下的所有不忠与遗忘之中
轨道平行着,在拐弯处闪着光滑的光
从山海关上坡西行
逃避着它背后仍未升起的黎明
向西,奔赴波兰德国与荷兰的终点
不会为任何诗句的弧线减速
语言被一次又一次撞破,浸着血
从厕所蹲坑脏黄的瓷孔滑下
一片也只能盖住枕木间的一颗碎石
只有车尾那个手持小旗的人
看到被血裹住的小石头
毫无规律地从脚下飞速消失成历史
闷罐似的列车,乘客们毫发无损
直到它钻进了隧道
也钻进了自己的浓烟
遥远的俯瞰失去了它,一时迷惑
而当它从另一端冲出来
像地狱火河上一条永远崭新的渡船
驶向铁丝网与高墙围起的烟囱
焦味正在天空慢慢地淡薄
晚霞中,铁轨像闪亮的刺刀
带着红荧荧的色调
戳进一颗沸腾的心脏
       2008年2月10日

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