by Zheng Danyi tr. Fan Jinghua
I am picturing you in the last autumn
A lone goose crossing oceans to an even distant autumn
The mountains over there are golden
When one leaf falls, it will bring two more
I have also pictured
How you wore your clothes. When one wore out
You replaced with another
I have sensed your coming
For the wind on that side has also cooled down this side
Like my hands
Which held at different times stones and fire
Like leaves falling down from above your head
Frail in the wind
Circling and whirling defiantly against the world
Like this bowl we are sharing now
You may not know, my star
Intermixed with other stars
Also illuminates your way to a distant chapter
Alas, one year resembles another year
On day adds to another day
Fate is but a parcel, wrapped up
To be unwrapped! And you
Are simply a treasure inside
You, a parcel of mystery, and I try to….
另一个秋天
郑单衣
我猜想你去秋的情形
孤雁过重阳 飞往更远的秋天
那面的山野金黄
一片落叶 带来两片
我也猜到了你
去秋的衣裳 一件旧了
再换上一件
我感到你会来
那边的风也吹冷了这一边
就像我的手
握过不同的石头与火焰
就像你头上的落叶飞舞
弱不禁风
却偏偏和这个世界周旋
就像现在 我们分享的这支碗
你不知晓我的星辰
混在其它的星辰里
也照见了你 奔赴遥远的篇章
唉 一年相似于一年
一天 又添进另一天
命运只是个包裹 装好
又拆散！ 而你
只是其中一件珍品
包着个谜 让我猜……
There is a kind of unique and unimitatable lyricism in Zheng Danyi’s poetry, which is both warm and melancholic. He writes with a mature style almost at the beginning of his writing career and it appears to me that there are very few who could write in such a style and voice. It can be said that he has never extricated himself from the mesmerizing effects of a rather sustained autumnal triste in Chinese tradition. His poetry almost always reminds of pieces in minor such as Tchaikovsky’s Chanson Triste, delightful to the ears, exquisite to the eyes and lingering to the taste. Or, if poetry is a better comparison, Constantine Cavafy comes to mind, whose elegiac, sensual and classical poems echoes in the hearts. Zheng is essential a romantic classist in contemporary poets, perhaps a last one. One interesting note. Zheng is a Sichuan native, and it seems that he finds Sichuan dialect especially effective to render his voice, and every time he gives a reading, he would read in his dialect, at least one poem, usually “Dedication” the titular piece of the subsection “Wings of Summer” or “This Poem is for You” the last piece from his most popular collection Wings of Summer.
Zheng (right) and his translator Luo (left) in a reading on August 28, 2005
郑单衣（右）和他的翻译者罗辉（左）在朗诵会上（2005年8月28日摄）
郑单衣的诗读来令人保持一种低缓的呼吸，令人沉潜其中。这应该归功于他催眠般的语言美感而非诗中的意思。他的诗有一种独特的无法模仿的抒情性，既温暖又忧伤。可以说，他从写作之初，就已经进入了这种成熟的风格，而且有着经年不衰的品质。这种风格和声音是当代中国诗歌中绝无仅有的，我愿意说，他是一个传承了中国古典诗词中的浪漫主义素质的最后一个当代诗人。他的诗歌总是令我想到一些小调的音乐篇目，例如柴可夫斯基的《忧郁之歌》(无词歌)，听来悦耳，意象爽目，余味袅袅；或者，既然是谈诗歌，要找一个诗人来对照，那么我会想到希腊诗人卡瓦菲。他们都有着一种挽歌式的、感官的、古典的回声。郑单衣是四川人，因此似乎觉得四川话最能体现他的声音效果。他每次诵读诗歌的时候，都会起码用四川话诵读一首，尤其是那首《献诗》或《此诗送给你》，前者是他最流行的诗集《夏天的翅膀》中同题部分的第一首，后者是最后一首。
About the poet:
ZHENG Danyi (b. 1963) graduated from Southwest China Normal University in Chongqing in 1983 where he led a poetry society. He published poems when in university and self-published some chapbooks. His major collection of poetry Wings of Summer was published bilingual (translated into English by LUO Hui) in 2003 after he settled in Hong Kong.
Zheng and Me in Singapore in 2004