21st Century Chinese Poetry

Ordinarily the fortune tellers are the ones eager to engage.
One of them staked out at the underpass to the train station.
He said, “oh, come, wait, look at your face, let me tell you about...”
Tell her about what? About fate? That is to say, money, love, luck, career, and health?
Was the “telling” to help map out an escape route from misfortunes,
from one’s demons, the decisions and non-decisions?
That particular afternoon the fortune teller pointed out a few milestones,
including fat years and lean years, those in the past and thosse still to come.
“Oh, but, that was the year my daughter was born.”
“It had nothing to do with your daughter,” he replied.
They say fortune-tellers are masters of statistics,
using the same method as facial recognition, but relying more on intuition.
That afternoon when she sat before the monk, south of eastern Mongolia's grassland,
under the white and vermillion Tibetan-Buddhist monastery,
it felt less tentative than science.
Her travel companion was displeased, grunting and berating
with words such as scam, fools, weak mind, et cetera;
to her, a daughter of postwar soldier, every expenditure must have a tangible purpose,
must fit in with logics.
Towards the end of the day, they took the bus to return to the city
— such a slow-moving bus that they wondered if the driver was paid by per passenger
and didn’t want to miss the teenager dashing out from the alley
in a glorious retro-metrosexual outfit,
or the grannie with a grocery bag in her saggy arm,
or the foreign trio in black gore-tex with a map in their hands, trying to plot out their next journey.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

與算命先生相對而坐

王美富

通常算命先生都是主動熱心的。
有一個還常常在火車站的地下通道等著。
那天他說：“哦，等等，快點，看你的臉型，啊，聽我說……”
要告訴她什麼？不就是命運？不就是錢財、愛情、運氣、事業和健康？
說是算命，確實就是宣傳能幫你擺脫厄運？
或是擺脫內心的掙扎，來到岔路口不得不做的抉擇（有的人喜歡一拖再拖）？
那天下午，算命先生為她指出幾個生命的關卡，
豐年，荒年，過去與未來。
“哦，可是，那是我女兒出生那一年。”
“這和你女兒沒什麼關係，” 他回答。
人們說算命先生其實是統計學大師，
用的方法與人工智慧的臉部辨識相似，但靠直覺多一點。
那天下午，在蒙古草原的東南一角，在一座朱白相間的藏傳佛寺高牆下面，
她與算命的僧侶相對而坐，
僧侶雖然是帶她摸著石頭過河，感覺比科學家更有自信。
她的旅伴非常不高興，哼哼唧唧地嘀咕著，
說什麼沒有文化迷信騙局傻瓜等等。
身為戰後士兵的女兒，從她的角度看，每筆開銷必須有實際用途，必須符合邏輯。
時近傍晚，她們一起搭車返回城市，
公車慢吞吞的走，以至於她們開始猜測司機的工資也許是按人計酬的。
因此他不想錯過那個從巷底衝出來的少年，穿著幾年前時髦過的絲質男裝，
還有那個手臂鬆垮的擰著購物袋的老奶奶，
還有三個老外，一身新款防風防水黑外套、抓著地圖，議論著下一段旅程。

AN IMPERFECT HOUSE

by Meifu Wang

All houses are not perfect,
some come with ad-hoc apparatus,
for example a log ladder in a two-story cob home;
some are impromptu sanctums, such as an igloo;
some are relics with sentimental values.
Once I was in a house
that improvised a wired net as lift.
I was scared after only one ride,
traumatized like a bluefin tuna suspended at sea
or an acrobat in a glass ball in the carnival.
Not all houses are castles,
not all manors come with a chaple for prayers,
but oftentimes there are children and animals around
that more than rectify
the house's imperfection.

Written and Translated by Meifu Wang

不完美的房子

王美富

並非所有的房子都是完美的，
有的只有簡單拼湊出來的裝置，
比如二樓土坯房裡一根瘦長的獨木梯，
就是老松樹或老杉樹的樹幹鋸出來的;
有些房子就是緊急避難所，比如愛斯基摩人的冰屋;
還有些房子看起來很破舊，像古代遺址，卻充滿回憶。
我去過的一戶人家，
他們用鐵籠子搭建出一個臨時升降梯。
我僅僅乘坐一次，就給嚇得不可言喻，
經歷了鮪魚被撈出海面吊在半空中的心悸，
也像馬戲團的雜技演員被高懸在玻璃球裡。
並非所有的房子都是城堡，
並非所有的莊園都有清淨的小教堂，
即使如此，他們周圍常會有孩子和小動物追逐玩耍，
一定能彌補房子的缺陷，
而且足足有餘。

WATER

by Meifu Wang

Once upon a time I saw a salt merchant leaning on her donkey cart.
She and her donkey had travelled far and waited long
to enter the monastery, but the monks’ prayers were longer.
By mid morning the little monks’ clogs began to clatter behind the temple walls,
and soon the majestic gates were opened.
The donkey finally unlocked her knees to enter the holy land to give life-saving salt,
harvested from an ancient inland sea a few hills away.
The monastery nestled in a scrubland surrounded by bald mountains,
south of the sand-flying Silk Road. A sleek airport was recently built
to funnel in modern-day visitors, with perks such as 30-minute free phone calls.
I used one minute to call you to say goodbye.
Earlier that day, we walked up a concrete bridge over the churning Yellow River.
At the summit of the curved bridge, you mentioned your mom and dad,
picturing them at their front door, eyes towards heaven waiting for rain.
Their sod house sat northward of the stupendous Yellow River,
but your ancestors chose the hostile desert for home so as to escape warlords.
Settlers everywhere have their versions of romance with water.
Some remember Fountain of Youth, Eternal Spring, Rose Water, amongst others,
but of all men's love affairs with water, nothing is sweeter than
an oasis in the desert.