Fan Jinghua: What On Earth Are the Facts About

　　What On Earth Are the Facts About
About the earth, we cannot learn by looking at the sky
For the light is never stable;
Neither can we look up to the reflection in our peers’ eyes,
For they could just close their eyes or turn away.
Surprise attacks of rains overflow the face of the earth,
The square, no matter encircled by what barriers,
Has nothing to evidence its magnanimity.
But on the riverbanks, March dandelions have already impregnated themselves
With the scattering May, as if they are future facts
That are coldly growing by the lake of tears.

When the navel of the earth explodes, dirty blood gushing out,
When we cry without sounds, by the walls
Which have crumbled and the foundational stones
From the last dynasty are threadbare,
What else evidences are needed to testify that the animal
Beneath the crust has always been so evil?
Do we need all those poems that eulogize it as Mother?
Do we need all those paintings that eroticize it?

Facts rub each other and superimpose, emitting no heat or vapor,
And they flow along the fissure between seasons,
Like the haze of life and death effacing on the mirror.
We, who are so accustomed to expressing ourselves through writing and reading only,
Are nothing but bare facts that take place
And are erased by later ones, buried
In our old sacks of skins, eating, drinking and having sex,
While figures of wasps haunt our visions of the square filled with kites and banners.

Our tears were once spring water, crystal clear,
But they cannot stand a night’s sound sleep.
Who can shed tears for tomorrow? That’s a backflow.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　June 4, 2008

　　有关大地与事实的
有关大地，我们不能抬头看天，因为光线会变幻，
也不能指望同类眼睛中的折射，因为他们会闭眼。
骤雨袭来，泪流满面，缺少植被的广场毫无深沉可言。
而三月的沟堤上，蒲公英就已孕育五月的飘零，
犹如事实在发生之前就已生根在泪腺的岸边。

当大地的肚脐裂开，渗出狼藉般的血污，
当我们向隅偷哭，而倒塌的墙角下露出上一代的残垣，
我们还需要盯着怎样的证据看多久才能确信地下的温度一贯如此？
难道要依据那些反复将它赞美成母亲的诗篇？
或者那些将它涂抹得性感丰腴的画面？

事实的更替不会磨擦出热度或释放什么液体，
它们只是从四季的表面流过，如检查生死的镜面上或有的呼吸，
而我们因为习惯于阅读书写，也只会和事实一样，
发生，覆盖，回到原来的皮囊里，吃喝，做爱，
想着挑衅的身材穿插在风筝与广告的幡下。

我们的泪曾如泉涌，但经不住一夜沉睡，
谁的眼泪会为明天而流？那是倒流。
　　　　　　　　　2008年6月4日