Two Poems by Yan An
Translated from the Chinese by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen
The Beauty of Killing
Imitating some wild beast
I craned my neck howling
While the birds in the grove
Become more reticent than ever
Leaves shaken off like luckless birds shot by bullets
Float down from high places
Slowly and hesitantly
Hide deep in tussocks of grass
杀生之美
我模仿着某种野兽的样子
引颈高叫着
而树丛中的鸟愈发沉默
被震落的树叶 仿佛不幸中弹的鸟儿
缓慢而略带迟疑地从高处飘落下去
在草丛里深深隐藏起来
Melancholy
A train threaded its way through the Qin Mountains
In a lengthy tunnel more imaginative than the afterlife
And then zoomed off into the yonder like an impetuous ghost
A plane flew over the celestial arc
Under this aircraft and beneath the smog
A bird repeatedly circled but unable to land
Finally winged away
I stood there like a stone on the ground
Witnessing them leave one by one in the end
Leaving behind only an almost nihilistic blue
Over the Qin Mountains so nihilistic
So prolonged and blue
惆怅
火车穿过秦岭
穿过比来世更具想象力的悠长地道
像一个性子急躁的幽灵一样远走了
飞机天上飞了
飞机之下 雾霾之下
一只经过反复周旋无法降落的鸟
最后也飞走了
我呆呆地站在地上
目睹它们一个接一个离去 最后
只剩下秦岭上空那种近乎虚无的蓝
就那么虚无地 长久地蓝着
A prominent poet in contemporary China, Yan An is the author of fourteen poetry books, including his most famous poetry collection, Rock Arrangement, which won him The Sixth Lu Xun Literary Prize, one of China’s top four literary prizes. The winner of various national awards and prizes, he is also a Vice President of the Poetry Institute of China, a Vice President of the Shaanxi Writers Association, a member of the National Committee of China Writers Association, and the head and Executive Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal Yan River, one of the oldest and most famous literary journals in Northwestern China. In English, his poetry book, A Naturalist’s Manor, translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen and published by Chax Press, was shortlisted (one of four titles) for the 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, administered by the American Literary Translators Association.
Born in Northern Shaanxi Province, Yan An has lived for many years in Xi’an, the old capital of China and eastern terminus of the Old Silk Road, located in the Central Shaanxi Plain and at the foot of the Qin Mountains. As a result, the Qin Mountains have been an important place for him to “collect winds” (a literal translation of “Cai Feng” [采风; pinyin: cǎi fēng], but which is normally translated as “to take field trips,” “to collect folk songs,” or “to understand popular customs”). As a result of this contact and inspiration, Yan An has written more than a hundred poems about the Qin Mountains or situated in them, and has a full-length collection of poetry about this area to be published soon in China.
The poems “The Beauty of Killing” and “Melancholy,” published here in translation in The Dodge, are from Yan An’s Rock Arrangement, published by Shaanxi Publishing & Media Group (Taibai Literary Press) in 2013.
Chen Du is a Voting Member of the American Translators Association and an Expert Member of the Translators Association of China. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Biophysics from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY at Buffalo, and a Master’s Degree in Radio Physics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the United States, her translations, poems, and essays have appeared in more than thirty literary journals. Together with her co-translator Xisheng Chen, she was shortlisted for the American Literary Translators Association’s 2022 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize for their collection of translations of the poetry of Yan An, A Naturalist’s Manor (published by Chax Press). Both translators were also longlisted in the 2021 and 2022 John Dryden Translation Competitions for their translations of poems from Yan An’s poetry collection, Rock Arrangement. Contact her at of_sea@hotmail.com.
Xisheng Chen, a Chinese American, is an ESL grammarian, lexicologist, linguist, translator and educator. He has worked as a translator for the Shanghai TV station Evening English News, a Lecturer at Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China, and an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of English and Social Sciences of Trine University in Angola, Indiana. As a translator for over three decades, he has published work in numerous fields in newspapers and journals in China and abroad.
Published January 15 2023