Fan Jinghua: Courtyard of Forgetfulness

　　Courtyard of Forgetfulness
The auspicious beasts on the flying eaves
Grovel on the ground: dark watchful holes.
Roof ridge, sitting on a drawn-away bench, is broken
With fragmentary fractures, upon which
A few grasses hold toward the sky one of their upper limbs.
People say that is a salute, a gesture of gratitude.
But the drooping dangling limbs, to be amputated and discarded
As refuse, are too disgusting to be acknowledged their existence.
Children of the past life scooted, bare-footed,
On the once smooth sand barnyard, the footprints
In the shape of superimposed hearts, afloat in the dammed past
As time elapses.
There, it is the smallest Eden in the ruins, mothering
Orphaned limbs.
On the broken ends of the prefabricated panels, cigarettes
Stuck onto the wires are spurting wreaths of thorny smoke.
If those masterless legs venture out of the embankments,
Rusty pricks into the flesh would not cause any tears of blood.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　May 27-28, 2008

　　遗忘的院落

屋檐上的神兽
蛰伏在地面：洞眼，黑。
失足的屋脊，摔成了粉碎性骨折，
而几棵草坚持向天举起一只上肢，他们都说
这是敬礼；
而那垂下的，已经被截除、丢弃；
令人恶心的，谁都不承认曾经见过。
前世的孩童赤脚的欢跑，
在一个曾经平整的场院上，脚掌
挪出一块方寸
之地，在一个旧时间的院落里。
这是世间最小的乐园，如今
收养着无人认领的孤肢，
预制板一端的粗铁丝叼着一根根香烟，吐出
一圈圈荆棘。
倘若那些独立的腿脚走出去，生锈的刺
再也不会令任何人疼到流泪。
　　　　　　2008年5月27-29日

Note: The death toll in the Sichuan earthquake has reached 70000 now, with reported missing of about 18000. Among the buildings that crumbled into pieces, the school houses came first. On the ruins, people saw in the broken ends of the prefabricated panels some very thin iron wires, onto which even ordinary cigarettes can be stuck. People call these kind of buildings "projects of bean curd dregs."