Fan Jinghua: Follow The Bits of Bread (I)

Follow The Bits of Bread
　　尾随一路面包屑

Part I: Books
第一部分：书

On my desk lies a three-tier baby bookcase
Books stand on one of its sides
As if leaning on one feet against a door frame
Luring me to draw them out from a cave

桌上，有一个横倒的小书架
书，单腿、双腿
倚门立于一排洞穴
诱惑我将它们拉出来翻阅

Faces on the spines, cheek by cheek
Or separated by names
Rilke, Woolf, Plath, Lowell, Hughes, Pound and Dante
All dead foreigners
Some staring at me, some not

书脊上的脸，并排，隔开
里尔克，伍尔芙，普拉斯
休斯，但丁，洛厄尔，庞德
都是死了的外国人
有的看我，有的不看我

I like to insert into the file of books
A couple by my acquaintances
Their modesty
Always makes me read of genuine wisdom

我惯于在案头的那排书中
插入两本熟人之作
因为他们的谦虚
我总能读到喜欢的地方


So many western books
Have made my head tilt a little
To read the titles
Of the few Chinese ones among them
那么多西文书
中间
夹着几本中文
我看书脊上的字
会稍稍侧着头

There is always
Gilded title lettering
On the black spine
For books about death
I can never finish with them

烫金的书名
必然是黑色的书脊
主题
大多与死亡有关
这样的书我总读不完


Oversize books are
To be scattered on the floor
Among spread-out journals and magazines
About fashion, manga, economy and politics
As if they are having a "lunch on the grass"

太大的书
都扔在地上
被一些定期到来的时政经济
以及漫画与时尚杂志
以各种姿势围拥
像在壁炉前举行《草地上的午餐》

Newly-purchased books
Turn me on
My wife too, but unsatisfied
Tonight

新购几本书
性趣甚浓
老婆被撩起，却未得满足
今夜

I can only bear to introduce
The books I love too much
To the few among my bosom friends
How selfish I am

太喜爱的作品
只介绍给自己喜爱的人
我真自私啊

Every woman accompanying to a bookstore
Will have her name on the inner of the front cover
For the day
And I turn to the name again and again

每个陪我买过书的女人
名字都在扉页上
和我分享那个日子
我一次又一次翻阅

If the poet is not jealous of a painter
The novelist of a dancer
The writer of a composer
Their work
I will keep aside for the time after my death

不钦佩画家的诗人
不崇拜舞蹈家的小说家
不羡慕谱曲的作家
他们的作品
可以留到我死后再读

The books that insult me most
Are not those super deluxe editions
But those thrifty ones
In the name of popularization
Of inferior paper and kitsch cover
Sell at an appalling discount
To make them really cheap

最侮辱我的不是昂贵的豪华精装本
而是那些声称为了普及
而将经典
配上流俗的封面
印刷粗劣，而且打折到
贱