Poems for June 4: Wang Dan and Luo Yihe

These poems are taken from a collection published on RFA’s Mandarin Web site for the 18th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, in which hundreds, perhaps thousands of people were killed by People’s Liberation Army troops. Wang Dan (ZH) was a prominent leader of the student protest on Tiananmen Square, and spent seven years in prison in the northeastern city of Liaoning. He was exiled to the United States and is currently a PhD student at Harvard. Luo Yihe (1961-1989) was a professional poet who died on hunger strike during the pro-democracy protests of 1989:

 

in the hours between dusk and dawn
we believe in everything -
taste the revenge of time
in joys not yet arrived

 

- Wang Dan

Dawn

Luo Yihe

The dawn holds up a cup filled with the blood of its son
It holds me up too, and this wild land
High Iranian plateau across which shining twin brothers
Once carried the sacred texts.

The light floods the plain, picking out the golden swords of wheat
Crossing India and Tibet, from where I have trudged too
Across the snows

Seeking between the lions and the tumbled rocks
The daughter of heaven – and a poem -
Those same mountains fringed the horizons of home
Before my exile.

The plateau accepts my words
It is a wide land of grains and barns
which fold a deep hatred to their breast
- and the dark mother of all blessings.

Earth mother, the night is thine
Thy darkness is thine to command
and the dawn also.

Give young girls tender lips like garlands of flowers
Give young girls lips like flames
Open the skull of primordial night

The sky is bathed in a battlefield glow;
Fire upon fire. He has a crude name: the great Yang, the sun
And revolution has a rosy naked body
They go together for a while
Until the illusion fades.

黎明

黎明手捧亲生儿子的鲜血的杯子
捧着我, 光明的孪生兄弟
走在古波斯的高原地带神圣经典的原野

太阳的光明象洪水一样漫上两岸的平原
抽出剑刃般光芒的麦子
走遍印度和西藏
从那儿我长途跋涉 走遍印度和西藏
在雪山, 乱石和狮子之间寻求—-
天空的女儿和诗
波斯高原也是我流放前故乡的山巅

采纳我光明言词的高原之地
田野全是粮食和谷仓
覆盖着深深的怀着怨恨
和祝福的黑暗母亲

地母啊, 你的夜晚全归你
你的黑暗全归你, 黎明就给我吧
让少女佩带花朵般鲜嫩的嘴唇
让少女为我佩带火焰般的嘴唇
让原始黑夜的头盖骨掀开
让神从我头盖骨中站立

一片战场上血红的光明冲上天空
火中之火, 他有一个粗糙的名字: 太阳
和革命, 她有一个赤裸的身体
在行走和幻灭

Prison poems

Wang Dan

1. We believe

we believe in history,
a tunnel etched from bronze
unextinguishable memory

we believe in the present
a one-way street
leading to the ocean

we believe in the future
a chant that begins and ends
with humanity

let go pain. let go silence.

in the hours between dusk and dawn
we believe in everything -
taste the revenge of time
in joys not yet arrived

狱中诗 《相信》

相信历史
历史是青铜掘出的隧洞
留在不灭的记忆
相信现在
现在是一发不归的航道
在通向大海
相信未来
未来有一首唱不完的歌谣
与人类同生同灭
放下哀伤和沉默
我们相信一切
在黄昏和拂晓之间
体味
时间的报酬
期待的欢乐

2. Days without cigarettes

in the days without cigarettes
you are not here
and yet I draw on you
hold on to you
the butt-end of my hopes.

it’s dark, and i can’t walk
this road till dawn;
to where my longings
lie stacked up in the
streets of a small grey town

you don’t seem to like it
there aren’t any pigeons flying

no cigarettes. so strike a match
when you think of me
with nothing to smoke,
and take a puff of helplessness;
a drag on a delicate rain shower
that will never come again
* * *
狱中诗 《没有烟抽的日子》

没有烟抽的日子
我总不在你身旁
而我的心里一直
以你为我的唯一的
唯一的一份希望
天黑了，路无法延续到黎明
我的思念一条条铺在
那个灰色小镇的街头
你们似乎不太喜欢
没有蓝色的鸽子飞翔，啊~
手里没有烟那就划一根火柴吧
去抽你的无奈
去抽那永远无法再来的一缕雨丝，喔~
在你想起了我后
又没有抽烟的日子，喔…
注：本诗曾在20世纪90年代由台湾张雨生谱曲，张惠妹演唱
关于园艺，我们知道什么呢？
关于甘菊
关于枯萎
关于丝绸一般的岁月
那些无法抗拒的季节
然后是风
秋天里我们修剪枝叶
虚拟的春天隐约成型
我们从一座山庄开始
石头，泉水，房屋
面对每一块泥土
每一道水纹
关于园艺，我们不需要知道很多
也许就像是迎风的桉树
呼啸而去之后
落叶满地，树干依然
我们只要重启灌木上的花朵
只要调整庭院中的格局
关于园艺
我是无可救药的乐观主义者

Related links:

Global Voices on the 18th anniversary

Bao Tong’s June 4 essay: Pressure is a good thing

China Digital Times on the June 4 anniversary