GU Cheng: 7 Short Early Poems

GU Cheng 7 Short Early Poems
顾城早期短诗七首

　Far and Close
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
You
Look at me for a while
Look at clouds for a while

I feel you
So far away when you look at me
So close when you look at clouds
　　　　　(1980)

　　远和近

你
一会看我
一会看云

我觉得
你看我时很远
你看云时很近
　　　　　1980年


　　A Generation
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
Dark night gives me dark eyes
And I use them to search for light
　　　　　(1979)

　　一代人
黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛
我却用它寻找光明
　　　　　1979年


　A Walk in the Rain
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
Clouds, gray upon gray
Cannot be washed clean
We open our umbrella
Instantly spreading darkness over the sky

Beneath this slow floating night
Two pairs of double stars
Appear to have no fixed orbits
Now close by, now apart
　　　　　　　(1980)

　　雨行
云　灰灰的
再也洗不干净
我们打开雨伞
索性涂黑了天空

在缓缓飘动的夜里
有两对双星
似乎没有定轨
只是时远时近
　　　　　1980年

　　Arcs
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
Birds in strong wind
Suddenly turn directions

A kid bends
To pick up a coin

Vines extend their antennae
Of filament, to touch fantasy

Sea waves ebb
And arc up their ridges
　　　　　(1980)

　　弧线


鸟儿在疾风中
迅速转向

少年去捡拾
一枚分币

葡萄藤因幻想
而延伸的触丝

海浪因退缩
而耸起的脊背
　　　　　1980年


　A Small Alley
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
A Small alley
Winding and long

No doors
No windows

I hold an old key
Tapping the thick wall
　　　　　(1980)

　　小巷
小巷
又弯又长

没有门
没有窗

我拿把旧钥匙
敲着厚厚的墙
　　　　　1980年


　A Snap
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
Sunrays
After a flash in the sky
Are buried again by clouds

Storm develop
The negative of my soul
　　　　　(1979)

　摄


阳光
在天上一闪
又被乌云埋掩

暴雨冲洗着
我灵魂的底片
　　　　　1979年

　Awakening
　　　　　　GU Cheng (1956-1993)　tr. Fan Jinghua
Gum from trees
Slow teardrops dripping
Glue together the shards of my heart

What locks us in love
Is not the joy in an orgy
But the pain we share

　　悟
树胶般
缓缓流下的泪
粘和了心的碎片

使我们相恋的
是共同的痛苦
而不是狂欢

　　　　　　GU Cheng and his wife XIE Ye in New Zealand home

　　GU Cheng (1956-1993) was one of the five key figures in the Misty poetry with Bei Dao, Duo Duo, YANG Lian and SHU Ting. While Bei Dao yelled “I DO NOT BELIEVE” at the end of Mao-Era, GU spoke with a quiet but determined voice in his most applauded two-line poem “A Generation” (written in 1979). GU was the son of a privileged arm-poet GU Gong, and he spent four years in the remote countryside during the Cultural Revolution when he began writing poetry. Then he became increasingly experimental, and produced the first most representative “Misty” poems (meaning “obscure” and “ambiguous” compared with the outcry propaganda poetry before or during the time). I first listened to his reading in 1985 and bought there a small signed book by him and SHU Ting (published in 1982). Among his poems, I loved such poems as “Arcs,” “A Walk in the Rain” and “A Small Alley,” different from almost all the poems I could get access to at that time. Later, he became increasingly disillusioned with everyday mundane life, and moved to New Zealand, staying at a small island. He did not speak English, almost unable to survive without his wife. However, he believed that he was desperately in love with another woman LI Ying, and his wife managed to immigrate LI to their home, where the three tried to live under one roof. Later, Li Ying left. He hanged himself after axing his wife to death on Oct. 8, 1993. His posthumous book Ying’er was a record of his life there. GU’s published books include Black Eyes (1986), Collected Poems (1995), Complete Poems (1998) etc.
顾城（1956-1993），出版的诗集包括有《黑眼睛》（1986）、《顾城诗全编》（1995）、《顾城的诗》（1998）等。

第一次听到顾城的朗诵，应该是1985年吧。那时候我在北师大，记得是在教七的阶梯教室。秋天。当时最流行风衣，通常是米黄色的，到小腿肚之下，但顾城穿的风衣比一般人的或者说是市面上常见的要短一些，到膝盖上一点，有点本白色带一点浅浅的淡蓝色。他开始讲座，说他记得的最早的诗歌经验是在幼儿园。一天早晨，他隔壁床上的男孩对他说，他昨夜没有睡着，因为他看到了窗外很大很圆很亮的月亮。于是，他就知道夜里不睡会看到很美的东西。听他这么说，当时还觉得他很假兮兮的。不过，他真的给人一种很纯净的感觉。因此，对于他后来的行为似乎没有感到多么意外。那天，买了他和舒婷共同出的一本小册子诗集《舒婷顾城抒情诗选》，出版于1982年。