MCLC: Li Cheng'en poem

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: Li Cheng'en poem
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As soon as I read the following poem, I was reminded of Woeser, the
Tibetan poet. Didn't know Li Cheng'en was also a woman. This poem is
part of Yi Sha's New Century Poetry Canon 新世纪诗典, an ongoing online
effort, also published on paper. The original was shared on Weibo, you
can see it on my blog:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_68d111990101luii.html
<cid:part1.03030806.07000500 at gmail.com>

Hopefully one day I am going to talk about this poem in a paper. For
now, I would like to share it here and see if there are any opinions on
translating it.

All those verses with "I give" could be "I gave". In the Chinese, there
is no difference. The sentence construction is also unique. It is the
well-known "ba-construction". Sometimes there is a "jiang" instead of
the "ba", but not here. Anyway, it's a construction often discussed in
Chinese grammar. Literally I think it's like saying "I take my flesh and
give it to the soil for keeping". Maybe you could also just say "I put
my flesh into the mud", or into the earth. But why would you call on the
mud to hold it for you?

Martin


Li Cheng'en
CALLING THE GHOSTS

In a hotel in a dream
very softly, I hear the ghosts.

"I give my flesh to the mud for keeping.
When I need it, please give it back!

I give my bones to the stones for keeping.
When I need them, please give them back!

I give my blood to the rivers for keeping.
When I need it, please give it back!

I give my brains to the mountain for keeping.
When I need it, please give it back!

I give my warmth to the sun and the moon.
When I need it, please give it back!

I give my warmth to the stove for keeping.
When I need it, please give it back!

Only the heart I have to carry ... "

After I wake up
I open the window
and see the mountain slowly moving.
One tiny stream down from the snow
like it's flowing in my dream.

Has my soul
gone wandering?
Or is it back?

I retain
one dusty heart.
But my soul,
where is it hidden?
Who gives it back?

Tr. MW, Oct. 2013

Li Cheng'en, born in the 1980s. Published poetry, essays and a novel.