3 Poems Translated by May Huang
Multiverse
Let us breathe
The air of peace and reason
Inside the office
Outside the bridge
Let us praise
The city’s skyscrapers
Diligent citizens
Absolute rule of law
Let us cling to
Academic plans
Real estate capital
Pension arrangements
Every career development scheme
Let us worship
Officials’ wise decrees
Fluent English
Correct language
Let us listen closely
To local beliefs
Forced assimilation and
Lively lands
Bright students
Let us believe in
Grand Northeastern mountains
A once expansive ocean
Wontons and heatwaves
Everything is not yet lost
Everything can still go on
Let us walk
Lay down clear cut boundaries
Hold the scepter of freedom
Open an even vaster sky
To resist death’s seduction
Let us walk
Save your tears for a loving mother
Turn your heart into a coin
Even if it will be cruelly tossed once more
Let us walk
Like the people from history
Hung with certain labels
It was nonetheless
A letter they resolved to send
Let us walk
Even if that year’s dream
Is a missed opportunity
Even if the air
Has become different
Let us walk
In this changing place
Pack up heart and head
Even if they want you to tear up
Keep on
Looking forward
平行時空
讓我們呼吸
和平理性的空氣
辦公室以內
天橋 以外
讓我們讚頌
城市的摩天大廈
勤奮的市民
完美的法治
讓我們綢繆
升學計劃
買樓資本
年金安排
一切生涯規劃的方案
讓我們 膜拜
首長英明的決定
流利的英文
得體的言辭
讓我們 細聽
地方信仰
奴化教育 與
活潑的土地
明亮的學生
讓我們相信
東北美麗的山巒
曾經廣闊的海洋
雲吞與熱浪
一切都還來得及
一切還可以延續
讓我們行走
定下鮮明的界線
手握自由的權杖
展開更闊的天空
抵擋死亡的誘惑
讓我們行走
把眼淚留給慈母
把心變成一枚硬幣
即使一再被狠擲在地上
讓我們行走
如歷史裏的人
被掛著某種標籤
仍是一封
堅持要寄出的信
讓我們行走
即使與那年的夢想
失諸交臂
即使空氣
已變得不一樣
讓我們行走
在這轉折的地方
收拾心和頭顱
即使誰人要你流淚
依然
眼望前方
Medicine
Here’s a dose of citizenship medicine
Keep that year’s medicine until today.
That year we just began to enter society
Diplomas that were just for show
Gestures that were too pale
Both then and now we have no mouths
They must be concealed under white cloth
Mist spreads over our eyes
Only when wanting to speak
Do we discover we can barely breathe
On the bus everyone sticks to white clouds
In my memory the bus jolts
Across my city’s high and low slopes
It rocks and shakes while I sleep
As the news shows ever rising confirmed cases
Admiralty is now called Hong Kong’s garden
It ensnares the liberated birds
To the side stands a blindfolded woman
Holding a scale that symbolizes justice
A white lookout tower in the garden
Grieves the lives we lost that year
They were called the angels in white
Later on they became textbooks:
In Mencius’s Fish is What I Wish for
There is the saying
Choose honor over life
This June everything begins anew
We wear yellow raincoats
Or go with the current
Turning blood into medicine
Falling one by one
Wearing masks again
We are no longer afraid
Entering dirty rooms freely
The clothes we never took off
White orchids foam at the mouth
Later on we could not recognize ourselves
Only saw the glass of isolation wards
Return to a time when
There was no fear in the white snow
And the sky
Was bright
藥
送你一帖公民的藥
把那個年頭的藥留到今天。
那年我們才開始踏入社會
裝模作樣的文憑
過於蒼白的手勢
那時跟現在同樣沒有嘴巴
都必須藏在白布之下
眼神披上一層薄霧
想要說話
才發現僅僅能夠呼吸
在巴士上人人都貼上白雲
記憶中巴士顛簸
走過我城高高低低的斜路
沉睡時刻搖搖晃晃
還有新聞不斷上升的確診數字
金鐘被稱為香港的公園
困著自由自在的鳥類
旁邊有個蒙眼的女人
手握象徵公義的天秤
公園裡有白色瞭望台
悼念那個年頭死掉的人類
他們被稱為白衣天使
後來就變成教科書︰
孟子魚我所欲也章
有個詞語叫做
捨生取義
今年六月一切重新開始
我們穿著黃衣
或者隨水漂流
把血變成藥
一個一個的倒下
重新戴上口罩
我們已不再懼怕
自願進入骯髒室
從未脫下的一身衣裳
口吐白蘭花
後來我們都沒有認出自己
只看到隔離室的玻璃
重回那一天
白雪裡沒有恐懼
天空中
有光
On the Boat from Kowloon City to North Point
Thank you sky for being vast as always
Thank you sea for being deep as ever
Thank you sunset for being still so bright
Thank you skyscrapers for being grand as ever
Thank you for not choosing to cut me off
I will not cut you off either.
We must still converse and converge
Sometimes I am the raging sea
Sometimes you are the jagged rock
Time goes on and pearls will bleed
But we must still touch and be in touch
Just as a new sun will rise tomorrow
Until someday
We forgive each other
九龍城往北角的船上
謝謝天空依然廣闊
謝謝海洋依舊深邃
謝謝夕陽竟然明亮
謝謝大廈依舊美麗
謝謝你沒有跟我割
我也不會跟你割。
我們要一直交流交匯
有時我是洶湧的海
有時你是尖刻的石頭
時間走過珍珠流血
但是我們仍要一直交流交流
就像明天會有新的太陽
直至 某天
我們彼此原諒
Leung She Kwan (璇筠) is a writer, poet, and educator from Hong Kong. A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Leung is the recipient of a Youth Literary Award and University Literary Award, among other accolades. Her poetry collections include Summer of Freedom and Rocking Horse in Water. Her poems “Multiverse,” “Medicine,” and “On the Boat from Kowloon City to North Point” also appear in http://read.musicalstone.hk/.
May Huang (黃鴻霙) is a writer and translator from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her work has appeared in Circumference, Electric Literature, Words Without Borders, Asymptote, and elsewhere. She graduated from the University of Chicago with honors in English and Comparative Literature in 2019.
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