Tuesday 5 May 2015

2 Poems by Niu Han

华南虎

在桂林
小小的动物园里
我见到一只老虎。

我挤在人群之中
隔着两道铁栅栏
向笼里的老虎
张望了许久许久,
但一直没有瞧见
老虎斑斓的面孔
和火焰似的眼睛。

笼里的老虎
背对胆怯而绝望的观众,
安详地卧在一个角落,
有人用石块砸它
有人向它厉声呵斥
有人还苦苦劝诱
然而,它却一概不理!

又长又粗的尾巴
悠悠地在拂动,
哦,老虎,笼中的老虎,
你是梦见了苍苍莽莽的山林吗?
是屈辱的心灵在抽搐吗?
还是想用尾巴鞭击那些可怜而可笑的观众?

你的健壮的腿
直挺挺地向四方伸开,
我看见你的每个趾爪
全部都是破碎的,
凝结着浓浓的鲜血!
你的趾爪
是被人捆绑着
活活地铰掉的吗?
还是由于悲愤
你用同样破碎的牙齿
把它们和着热血咬碎的……

我看见铁笼里
灰灰的水泥墙壁上
有一道一道的血淋淋的沟壑
像闪电那般耀眼刺目!

我终于明白……
我羞愧地离开了动物园,
恍惚之中听见一声
石破天惊的咆哮,
有一个不羁的灵魂
掠过我的头顶
腾空而去,
我看见了火焰似的斑纹
火焰似的眼睛!


半棵树

真的,我看见过半棵树
在一个荒凉的山丘上

像一个人
为了避开迎面的风暴
侧着身子挺立着

它是被二月的一次雷电
从树尖到树根
齐楂楂劈掉了半边

春天来到的时候
半棵树仍然直直地挺立着
长满了青春的枝叶

半棵树
还是一整棵树那样高
还是一整棵树那样伟岸

人们说
雷电还要来劈它
因为它还是那么直那么高
雷电从远远的天边就盯住了它
                                1972年, 咸宁


South China Tiger

In the small zoo
Of Guilin
I have seen a tiger.

Standing amid the crowded spectators
I watch the caged tiger
Through two rail fences
For quite a long long time,
Without seeing
The gorgeous countenance of the tiger
And his fiery eyes.

The caged tiger,
With his back towards the timid and desperate audience,
Is lying in a corner serenely.
Somebody hits him with stones
Somebody shouts at him brutally
And somebody tries to coax him
However, he ignores!

The long and thick tail
Is whisking with ease.
Tiger, O, the caged tiger,
Is it that you dream of the verdant and luxuriant mountain forest?
Is it that your humiliated heart is twitching?
Or is it that you want to scourge the pitiable and laughable spectators?

Your sturdy legs
Are spreading out in all directions,
I see that all of your toes
Are broken,
And coated with blood!
Are your toes
Cut off from your feet
By binding you up?
Or is it out of rage
That you bite them into bloody shreds
With the same broken teeth

I see in the iron cage
On the gray walls of cement
There are bloody gullies after bloody gullies
Which are dazzling like lightning!
It dawns on me finally
Shamefully I left the zoo;
In a trance I heard
A snarl which is welkin-shaking;
An unruly spirit
Runs across my head
To fly on high;
I have seen the fiery streaks
And the fiery eyes!


An Half Tree

Really, I have seen an half tree
Standing on a desolate massif

Like a person
Standing sideways
To avoid the head-on wind & storm

The tree was neatly cleaved
Into two halves by a February thunderbolt
From top root

With the coming of spring
The half tree is still standing upright
Green with twigs and leaves

The half tree
Is still as tall as a whole tree
As gigantic in stature as a whole tree

It is said that
The thunderbolt is going to come at it again
Since it is still as straight and as tall as before
The thunderbolt takes aim at it from afar
                                     Xianning, 1972


作者简介:
牛汉(1923—2013),原名史成汉,又名牛汀,生于山西定囊县。蒙古族。1946年毕业于西北大学俄文系。1948年至1950年在华北大学、中国人民大学任职。1953年后,在人民文学出版社工作,曾任《新文学史料》主编、《中国》文学杂志副主编。主要作品有:诗集《彩色的生活》、《祖国》、《爱与歌》、《温泉》、《蚯蚓和羽毛》等,另有诗文选集《空旷在远方》行世。系“七月派”主要成员之一。


About the author:
Niu Han (1923—2013), his original name was Shi Chenghan, and his another name is Niu Ding. He was born in Dingnang County of Shanxi Province, and he belongs to the nationality of Mongolia. He was graduated from the Russian Department of the Northwest University in 1946. Between 1948 and 1950, he worked in North China University and People’s University of China. After 1953, he worked at People’s Literature Publishing House, and has ever been editor-in-chief of Historical Materials of New Literature and vice editor-in-chief of the literary magazine of China. His main works include collections of poems such as Colorful Life, Motherland, Love and Songs, Hotspring, Earthworms and Feathers, etc. Besides, he has published his selected poems and prose entitled Vastness and Expansiveness in the Distance. He is an important member of the “July School”.
                                                        (Tr. by Zhang Zhizhong)





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