Fan Jinghua: An Elegy for a Living Being

　　　An Elegy for A Living Being

As a gesture of homage to you, I take out a digital Bach and make it
Lie in a sound machine. The organ blows its pipes loudly for your passing,
As if a glowing tree takes two 14-minite sessions to bud and defoliate.

On a certain day in the certain month in the certain year, you stand at one end
Of a long line of poplars, and time stutters for once and disperses some spittle;
One droplet falls on the lineal narration of history and dilutes out a dot.

You calculate in your mind what function will be able to
Express the trajectory of change in the spacing of those trees in relation with
The relation between the crowd and you. This is not that complicated, but
You have to be squatted down and draw the curves on the earth with your little knife.

At the end of the row, there is also your deity over a bodiless tree that glisters
Like an optical Christmas tree, and all the hanging faces on gold-layered baubles
Have huge mouths, menacing noses and dwindling eyes.
Florescent veins grow into unignitable low fever in the untouchable body.

You have been led away into the crowd by a big powerful hand, and like a child too
You’ve handed in your little knife to be used as evidence against you when you grow up.
But of course, you usually grow into anonymity,
Forgetting your bright knife or being forgotten all together.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Jan. 7, 2010

Notes:
　　Ordinary Chinese people before the power that be have in recent years invented many phrases to express their “unorthodox” ideas, among which is the passive voice of many non-passive verbs. E.g. be committed suicide (an example is that an assumed suspect commits suicide after opening his handcuffs with a one-dollar note in the closely watched cctv cell with shoelaces during his inmates are taking a nap), be obtained a job (graduates can only have their scrolls when they signed a memo of job offer with some company, for the university authority needs the employment rate of their graduates). Hence, I use the expression: have to be squatted down.
　　Two 14-minute sessions: a famous dissident, who taught me a course of Introduction to Literature for a semester when I was in university, was sentenced for 11 years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power” on Christmas 2009. On the court, the defender was given 14 minutes because the prosecutor used 14 minutes, and they said this was to show that they had equal rights.


　　　为一活物而作的挽歌

为了向那个你致意，我让一张数码巴赫
躺进虔诚的声音器，管风琴弘扬你的经过
发光的树从发芽到叶落的过场走了两个十四分钟

某年某月某一天，你站在这排白杨的一端
令时间口吃一次，一星唾沫溅出
在历史的线性叙述上稀释出一个虚点

你心算了该以怎样的函数
表达株距的变化轨迹对应人群与你的关系之间的关系
这其实不算复杂，但如今你必须被蹲下，用小刀在地上画着曲线

你的神也在这排树的尽头，那之外的树像光纤的圣诞树一样
挂满了带金的彩球，将笑脸都映照得圆浑
荧光的脉络在你触摸不着的身体上闷烧

你已经被有力的大手领进人群，也像孩子一样
你的小刀交了出来，作为你成人后备用的呈堂证供
可通常说来，你长大了就是无名小卒
你会忘记那闪亮的小刀也会被人彻底遗忘
　　　　　　　　　　　　　2010年1月7日