Zhu Zhu and Chen Zi-ang

Zhuzhu and Chen Ziang

　　　On the Staircase
　　　　　　　by Zhu Zhu　tr. Fan Jinghua
Now, too many men are on the staircase to be counted.
Go upstairs, but Chopin is already in the dark.
Go downstairs is to die lonely in the crowd.
　　　　　　　　　　　　1991

　　楼梯上
　　　　　　　朱朱
此刻楼梯上的男人数不胜数
上楼，黑暗中已有肖邦。
下楼，在人群中孤寂地死亡。
　　　　　　　　1991

　　There has been a time when every national literature has to face some “turns and crossroads,” and people will arrive at them at different times. When a majority of them reach here, the turns or crossroads do not present problems any longer, therefore it is always the loners who feel the deepest uncertainty and anxiety. However, these loners, perceptively keen and powerful as they are, may not write out the most accomplished or monumental works.
　　Contemporary Chinese poetry has faced many of this turns along its zigzagging course. Some poets, however, are not involved into the superficial debates over which turn to take but engaged into a kind of self-reflection. Essentially, before enough accumulation of texts, no debates about how to write can be substantial.
　　Zhu Zhu seems to maintain the status of a loner in writing poetry. This poem was written in 1991, when the two schools of “Academic poetry” and “Folk poetry (grassroot, unofficial)” were emerging to draw their lines. This gives this poem some added significance.
　　This poem was an obvious response to an early Tang poet Chen Zi-ang’s famous “Climbing Youzhou Terrace,” and the terrace becomes Zhu Zhu’s staircase. As a scholar and poet, Chen was intelligent, perceptive and insightful, and as a politician, Chen was imprisoned for being very critical of the Empress Wu Zetian. Chen’s overly famous poem reads:

　　　　　《登幽州台歌》
　　　　　　　　　[唐]陈子昂
　　　　　前不见古人，
　　　　　后不见来者，
　　　　　念天地之悠悠，
　　　　　独怆然而涕下。

Calligraphic work of the poem in Chen's museum in Chengdu, Suchuan

　　　　　　Climbing Youzhou Terrace
　　　　　　　　　　　　Chen Zi-ang (661-702 Tang Dynasty)
　　　　　No one to resort to from the past,
　　　　　No one to expect in the future.
　　　　　Thinking of the infinity of heaven and earth,
　　　　　I, alone, shed my tears of despair.


　　　　　　　　Chen Zi-ang (661-702) early Tang dynasty poet

　　Chen Zi-ang might not see himself as Atlas who held the earth on his back, but his despair was sincere and genuine. For the latecomers, the miseries of those forerunners may appear to be too self-inflicted, for history would go on all the same without the “sentimentality.” For us to really appreciate the sentiments, we have to first of all start by acknowledge the authenticity of the feelings, no matter how fragile they might appear.
　　What Zhu Zhu sees as his despair is not because no one can lead the way but because too many people to be lead. Those men become themselves (here, men should be understood as manly or masculine beings) by climbing to the staircase and keeping apart from the crowd, but they are still a bunch of strayers, like those “superfluous men” in the Russian literary history. They are too many to be counted as individuals.
　　The speaker in the poem is faced with two options. He can either follow the trodden way of the past masters to be effaced in the darkness or go downstairs to be a lonely sage or enlightener.

　　任何一个民族的文学总会在其发展过程中面临各种转弯，而到达这些弯口的人则总有先后。当大部分人到了的时候，那个转弯就已经不再是迷茫之地了；因此，往往是独自行走的人才能深切感受到这种迷茫的绝望。可是，无论这样的人感受多么深刻强烈，他们往往并不可能写出伟大作品；毕竟，他们还没有那个气候。
　　中国当代诗歌的发展，可以说是一直都是在九曲回肠的路上。有些诗人并没有参与到各种几乎是鸡毛蒜皮的争论之中，而是独立独行的观察、写作。说实在的，在没有足够积累形成一个大气候之前，很多争论只能是皮毛。
　　在当代中国诗坛，朱朱可说是尽量保持着一种独行者的姿态，既不招摇也不不招摇。这首小诗写于1991年，当时正是学院派风格与民间风格的两种写作之间的分野开始显露的时候，这使得这首诗具有某种很特别的意味。
　　这首诗可读作是当代诗人对于古典诗歌地位和传统的一种回应，在此，朱朱回应了初唐诗人陈子昂。作为一个学者和诗人，陈子昂是很有洞察力和感受力的，作为一个政治人物，他因为坚决批判中国历史的唯一女皇帝武则天而遭受牢狱之灾。他的《登幽州台歌》成为了朱朱的楼梯。
　　陈子昂眼中所见的是无人，也就是无能人，没有古代的人可以给予启示，也看不出将来有谁能够承担，因此陈子昂只能绝望，这其中当然并不是说自己是那个背负着地球的Atlas，因此我们说他只能眼看着悠悠的天地岌岌可危。当然，时过境迁，历史离开谁都不会不前，因此一个人的深痛，有时候在后来者看来，实在是一种杞人忧天。我们能够做的不过就是，尊重那种感受的真实。
　　朱朱这首诗中看到的不是无人，而是人太多了，太多的迷茫者，太多本质上还是平庸的俗人。他看到的绝望不是无人领头，而是太多的人无法被领去。楼梯上的数不胜数的汉子们（这里的男人的意思便是指这些人也算是汉子了），似乎已经脱离了楼下的人群，然而他们还是迷途者，犹如俄国文学史上的一帮“多余人”。这个说话人却并不融入这些人。汉语中的“数不胜数”说的是数不完，其实也暗示着一眼看去太多了，我已经不愿尽数了，因此我的翻译是too many to be counted太多了，都可以不算数了。也就是说，实际上，这里的数不胜数应该是指“多到不具有个体意义了”，这就是所谓的大多数的意味。
　　楼上的黑暗已经被占有，也就是说被已死者占有，被“盖棺定论”的前辈大师占有了，那么后来者即使想“更上一层楼”也不可能在黑暗中被看见。这便是影响的焦虑。下楼呢，那是一帮无知者，甚至还不如已经爬到楼梯上的伪觉悟者。这个说话人的绝望是彻底的，要么进入故去的大师们的行列从而消失于黑暗，要么到底层去寂寞的死去。