三、玉梯：于坚的诗（3首）……………………………BH, LMK译

抒情诗：

1．Beer Bottle Top 


2．The Nail That Skewered the Sky

实验诗：

3.from Zero File

Volume 4 Daily Life

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　于坚，1954年8月8日出生于昆明。14岁辍学，当过铆工，电焊工，搬运工等。20岁开始写诗，25岁发表作品。1984年毕业于云南大学中文系。1985年与韩东等人合办诗刊《他们》。1986年发表成名作《尚义街六号》，1994年长诗《O档案》被誉为当代汉语诗歌的一座“里程碑”。 著有诗集《诗六十首》、《对一只乌鸦的命名》、《一枚穿过天空的钉子》（台北）、《作为事件的诗歌》（荷兰语版）、《飞行》（西班牙语版）、《棕皮手记》、《云南这边》、《于坚的诗》、文集《棕皮手记》、《元创造》（诗集，2006年比利时根特大学出版）等。

LYRIC POEMS

Beer Bottle Top

no idea what to call it just now it was still at the banquet’s top table

the guardian of a bottle of stout indispensable it had its own identity signifying twilight contentment and the depth of a frothy glass

it jumped away with a bang as dinner began a motion much like a bullfrog the waiter almost believed it was a real frog he even thought something actually came back to life on the food-filled dining table

he rued his illusion focusing straight away on a toothpick

he was the last after this the world wouldn’t think of it ever again there would never again be a dictionary entry about it never again its denotation never again its connotation or figurative sense

while the china plate originally placed below it would have signified the flavours of Sichuan

the napkin was being used by a general’s hands roses in full bloom

a metaphor of nobility

on its peculiar curve it left this event this wasn’t its curve

breweries never designed a line like this for a bottle of beer

now, it lies together with orts like cigarette butts footprints bones and

floorboards

none having anything to do with any other an impromptu pattern nobody useful to anybody else

and it’s even worse a butt can make the world think of a dirty tramp

a bone signifies a cat or a dog footprints surely hint at somebody’s whole life it’s junk its is only its its shape is only its shape

it’s beyond everything our adjectives can touch

at that time I hadn’t started drinking it was me who opened this beer

that’s why I got to see it jump so oddly gone, as simple as that

I suddenly wanted to jump out like it did with a BANG, too  but I couldn’t being the author of an anthology and a sixty-kilo body

I merely bent over picked up this rare little beauty its hard crimped edge scratched my finger

making me feel a kind of sharpness nothing to do with knives

[BH, LMK]

The Nail That Skewered the Sky

my daughter is memorising a chapter of her English textbook

she always gets stuck at the word nail

the mirror is hanging on a nail

my wife is admiring herself in the mirror

but she always bumps into the nail

the eerie sound from the TV next door

is also sucked back into the wall by the nail

with the water in the kettle whistling at boiling point

the nail has nailed the night down even deeper

I’ve found the nail that skewered the sky

I nail it into the wall inch by inch

nail it into a black dot

like a fly crawling on the wall

[BH, LMK]

from Zero File

Volume 4 Daily Life

1 Address

the address he sleeps at is 6 Shangyi St. public land

always used to build houses once with hoes carts saws nails roof tiles

now with cement mixers piledrivers hammer drills welding torches heavy lorries cement

marble steel bars casting punching stacking piling sealing

steel windows steel doors steel locks against Richter 10 earthquakes against fires against floods

ABCRm503 is the code in his residence permit A for

the zone where he is B for his building C for his unit

5 refers to his floor 03, though, is his room

Sleep Situation

his bed is 1.3m above the floor positioned closest to the roof a height for sleeping

not much noise dry and airy pretty good for storage keeping putting aside stacking

10pm he draws the curtains locks the door switches off the light this is formal sleeping

afternoons he sleeps on the couch in his shirt and pants only his shoes off covers himself with a blanket

good days for sleeping are in spring sleep long sleep well sleep not wanting to wake up

bad days for sleeping are from June to September hot stuffy one sleep has to be divided

a number of naps could a sleep be completed sleep longest in autumn not disturbed by mosquitoes and flies

no need to scratch carefree sleep deep and sound he goes to bed at 9 in winter with the electric blanket

Waking up

puts on shorts puts on t-shirt puts on pants puts on slippers goes to the toilet squeezes toothpaste rinses

spits washes face looks into the mirror applies moisturiser combs hair changes into leather shoes

has breakfast two deep-fried dough sticks a bowl of soya milk a glass of milk a bun turn about

puts on a wool cardigan puts on a jacket takes his suitcase looks into the mirror again locks the door

tests if the door is securely locked goes downstairs looks at the sky looks at the watch pushes the bike leaves by the front gate

Work Situation

enters nods mouth open mouth shut face moves hands move

legs move

head moves eyeball and eyelids move stands sits face still walks 4 steps

walks 10 steps hands over takes over opens holds browses pats pushes pulls receives

counts squats down comes out closes drinks chews spits measures brushes copies bends

between longitude 35°E and latitude 20°N radius 200 meters altitude 500 meters temperature

22o C force 3 SE wind time: eight to twelve two to six

Ideological Report

(according to comrades in control of secrets and their conjectures suspicion exposure coordination)

he wants to shout counter-revolutionary slogans he wants to violate public order he wants to be frenzied and go crazy he wants to be degenerate

he wants to rape he wants to be naked he wants to kill a batch of people he wants to rob a bank

he wants to be a billionaire a big landlord a big capitalist wants to be king president

he wants wine, women and song to be dissipated and unashamed to be a tyrant to abuse his power to ride roughshod over the people he wants to surrender he wants to revolt he wants to confess he wants to recant he wants to take revenge on his own people

he wants to riot take frequent actions agitate rise up overthrow one class

A Set of Verbs Hidden in His Gloomy Mind

smash erect insert tidy up frame up falsely accuse add insult to injury

fuck make fix shout till hoarse batter expose

bring down shoot stirrup in iron feet Up and at them! Advance! instructions: this person should be for control and use by party members only pay attention to and observe his movements send a duplicate top-secret

internal circulation observe confidentiality transmission to non-party members prohibited ‘it’s okay only you know don’t tell him’

After-Hours Activities

worries about suburban scenery (far outside Xia Ma Village)

forges a good few fine verses wheat awns at 10k from the hometown lucky to be mentioned by him

(see In the Rain) once in a while polishing up Poems of Zhimo (Xu Zhimo contemporary poet

studied abroad in Britain graduated from Cambridge works include Sayonara translated into Japanese

English French Italian Serbian and African 16 languages)

always strolls along a 19th century avenue (Shangyi Street is under the Wu Hua Zone

with two public toilets 3 Szechwan flavour hotpot restaurants 12 electricity poles 1 post office

1 hairdresser 6 rubbish bins 3 back alleys 14 main doors 3 big slogans

two billboards 10 posters about illnesses missing person notices shop for rent)

every week washes the clothes once watches two movies buys tabloids 7 times (evening papers weekly digest)

does 80 sit-ups shops for 6 hours (divided into three times two hours each)

every day junk food 20g cake 20g sunflower seeds 3 sticks of chewing gum 1 bag of peanuts

3g fruit candies looks at the calendar once looks at the watch 8 times sits down 9 times squats down for 20 minutes

lies down 11 times leans for 4 hours hands behind the back head pillowed on the arms hands in

trouser-pockets hands on a cup hands hanging down hands relaxed legs crossed on tip-toes on the floor

legs bent feet shod in slippers feet in a basin feet on a towel bare- feet

every night lifts the TV cover presses ON watches ads watches network news watches weather forecast

watches Animal Planet watches singing watches dancing watches 30 episodes of a soap

watches ads watches foreigners watches ads watches Our Lovely Land watches ads watches

balls flowers clothes water watches ads watches tomorrow’s programmes watches today’s programmes come to an end

at this point goodnight everybody watches the snow on the screen presses OFF

Diary

DD-MM-YYYY sunny bad mood depressed DD-MM-YYYY sunny good mood sat a whole morning DD-MM-YYYY the sky overcast again

lonely raining still sleeping in the afternoon DD-MM-YYYY slept the whole day

some year some month some day caught flu some day the wind blew some day hot some day cold some day waited for somebody

some year some month some day new year some day birthday some day festival

[BH, LMK]