Canto 55, of Songs of the Last Chinese Poet, smashed and commented on yesterday

By Ouyang Yu

 

[now i understand why all the ancient chinese poets used the word]

 

now i understand why all the ancient chinese poets used the

word

‘chou’

how can you not feel chou when you live a thousand miles

away from home

and do not see a mail coach for months on end

how can you not feel chou when you realize with a

suddenness

 

not easy to come by that even your wife is but another total

stranger

who sleeps beside you night after night

how can you not feel chou when you see someone like you

spending his hours waiting for a whore in a dubious parlour

how can you not feel chou when you watch millions of cars

flash by

day and night without one single eyelid turned your way

how can you not feel chou when you envision a future with

another of you 

living in another place trying to make sense of it all

how can you not feel chou when you look out at the car the

lawn

the mail box the palm tree the house that contains you 

how can you not feel chou when you see the kids grow up 

and think oh what if they live like you

how can you not feel chou when you think of all those poets

living their varied life compressing it into the single word

‘chou’

-----


my own self-comment thus runs:


欧阳自评：Chaos选的第二首，是从我的英文诗集Songs of the Last Chinese Poet里面选的。这本诗集有三千多行，是我做博士期间边写论文边写起来的。1997年出版，后来我把全书自译成中文了。请看下面的中文译文。这个网站上的英文排版与原书有点出入，因此我把原书书封等和原文一起放在下面，供大家对照把玩把玩，谢谢！


and the comment by rong yu below:


how can you not feel chou，这句式蛮洗脑的，给胡彦斌谱曲的话，有机会红。这首明着操心中国人心大不知chou甚至麻木，我倒觉得内涵了中国人的坚韧乐观不屈服，比起其他国家，中国人活得太不容易


and another one by chaos:


人们用短暂必死的一生用来拜粪逐臭，诗人用短暂必死的一生用来发chou是对的，也是正确的!


The poem originally published in the book (see photos), with my self-translation in chinese, too:










 

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