3 Poems Translated by May Huang

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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

 

 

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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

 

 

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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

 

 

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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.