2 Poems by Zheng Min

Golden Sheaves of Rice

Golden sheaves of rice are standing

In the harvested autumnal field,

And numberless weary mothers come to my mind;

On the dusky road I see the fair crinkled face.

The plenilune of harvest day

Is on the towering treetop;

In the twilight, distant mountains

Encircle our heart;

No statuary is more silent like this.

Shouldering the great fatigue, you

Are steeped in contemplation

In the autumnal field stretching afar.

Silence. Silence. History is nothing but

A running creek beneath the feet;

And you, standing there,

Would become a thought of human beings.

                      Written between 1942 and 1947

金黄的稻束

金黄的稻束站在

割过的秋天的田里，

我想起无数个疲倦的母亲，

黄昏路上我看见那皱了的美丽的脸，

收获日的满月在

高耸的树巅上，

暮色里，远山

围着我们的心边，

没有一个雕像能比这更静默。

肩荷着那伟大的疲倦，你们

在这伸向远远的一片

秋天的田里低首沉思，

静默。静默。历史也不过是

脚下一条流去的小河，

而你们，站在那儿，

将成为人类的一个思想。

写于1942年至1947年之间

Aspiration: a Lion

There is a gaping mouth in my body

Which is like a snarling lion

It runs to the end of the bridge over the river

To watch the onflowing currents beneath the bridge

And the steamship silently skimming through the hole of the bridge

It hears the bellowing of the epoch

It turns back to watch me

And returns to the cage in my body

The golden hair of the lion is like the sunlight

The roaring of the elephant is like the drumbeat

The vigor of flower blossoming returns to my body

The lion takes me to the end of the bridge

There, I am going to have an appointment

渴望：一只雄狮

在我的身体里有一张张得大大的嘴

它像一只在吼叫的雄狮

它冲到大江的桥头

看着桥下的湍流

那静静滑过桥洞的轮船

它听见时代在吼叫

它回头看着我

又走回我身体的笼子里

那狮子的金毛像日光

那象的吼声像鼓鸣

开花样的活力回到我的体内

狮子带我去桥头

那里，我去赴一个约会

About the author:

Zheng Min (1920— ), female, her ancestral place is Minhou of Fujian Province, and she was born in Beijing. She was graduated from the Philosophy Department of the Southwest United University in 1943, and in 1949 she went to America to further her studies. In 1955, she returned to work at the Institute of Foreign Literature Studies of China Academy of Sciences. Now she is professor at the Foreign Languages Department of Beijing Normal University, and she is an important member of “the Nine Leaves School”. Her main works include: poem collections such as Poem Collection (1943—1947), Frame of the Mind, Seeking and Searching, In the Morning, I am Deflowering in the Fog, Peotry Anthology of Zheng Min, and monograph Poetry and Philosophy Are Close Neighbours, as well as a translated work Selected Readings from Contemporary American Poetry, etc.

                                                       （Tr. by Zhang Zhizhong）

作者简介：

郑敏（1920— ），女，祖籍福建闽侯县，生于北京。1943年毕业于西南联大哲学系。1949年赴美国留学。1955年回国，在中国科学院外国文学研究所工作。现任北京师范大学外语系教授。系“九叶派”主要成员之一。主要作品有：诗集《诗集1943—1947》、《心象》、《寻觅集》、《早晨，我在雾里采花》、《郑敏诗集》，专著《诗歌与哲学是近邻》，译著《美国当代诗选》等。