MCLC: translation of Xu Zhiyong's closing statement (2)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: translation of Xu Zhiyong's closing statement (2)
*************************************************************

Sorry for the late reaction. When Xu Zhiyong was sentenced, I was
translating a few poems by Yan Li 严力. Yan Li's magazine First Line 一行
was 
a very important starting venue for Yi Sha 伊沙. They brought out a poetry
collection together with Ma Fei 马非  in 1994, 一行乘三. Yi Sha gave it to
me in 
Xi'an two months ago. In this book I found a poem titled YOU （你). There
was no date under the poem, so I asked Yi Sha. He didn't know when the
poem was written, but he referred me to Yan Li himself, who sent me three
poems called YOU, all written in the 1980s. I translated two of them and
sent the German versions to a few papers and magazines in Germany,
Switzerland and Austria. One or two of them will print them soon. The
point in connection with Xu Zhiyong's trial is that the first YOU features
the words "citizen" and "love" very prominently. Just a coincidence, and
words in poems are always different from words in law or politics. You can
find the poems on my blog

<http://banianerguotoukeyihe.com/2014/01/31/and-one-more-happy-new-year-of-
the-horse/

And 

http://banianerguotoukeyihe.com/2014/01/31/yan-li-three-poems-%E5%85%AC%E6%
B0%91%E3%80%81%E7%88%B1%E7%9A%84%E7%A9%BA%E9%97%B4%EF%BC%9A%E4%B8%A5%E5%8A%
9B%E4%B8%8A%E4%B8%96%E7%BA%AA%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%81%E5%B9%B4%E4%BB%A3%E4%B8%89%
E9%A6%96/

with the originals. I am not very proud of my English translation of that
first YOU - the last line is tricky, I think. Here are two poem.

Martin

==========================================================


YOU, by Yan Li

you

are a citizen of the universe

you live where there’s air

you

are a citizen of the Milky Way

you live where there’s sunlight

you

are a citizen of the earth

you live where there’s freedom

you

are a citizen of love

you live where there’s song

you

are your own citizen

you live where you exist

1989
Tr. MW, 2014



GIVE IT BACK, by Yan LI

please give me back that door without locks

even if it doesn’t lead to a room please give it back

please give me back the rooster that wakes me up in the morning

even if you ate him please give me the bones

please give me back that herding song from halfway up

even if you recorded it on cassette please give it back

please give me back

my relationships with my brothers and sisters

even it is just for half a year please give them back

please give me back my place of love

even if you wore it out please give it back

please give me back the whole earth

even if you have cut it up into

one thousand countries

one hundred million villages

please give it back

1986
Tr. MW, 2014/1