About Me

My photo
Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Saturday, January 16

Yu Guangzhong - The Next Meeting (Mandarin Chinese to English Translation)

I am no Chinese speaker: I can only read a little Chinese. Thus, this translation shouldn't be considered reliable at all.

This is a very beautiful love poem that should be read using a couple of Mahayana Buddhist googles: it is a cosmical depiction of love, represented both as the romantic love between two old lovers (one of which, the poetic voice, is on his deathbed) and as the universal love of the Boddhisatva. Without those googles, the poem might seem somewhat exaggerated.

The author is Yu Guangzhong, one of the best Taiwanese poets. Most of his work depicts his longing and love for continental China (at least for its territory, not for its government). He is also an extraordinary polyglot.



The Next Meeting

Yu Guangzhong (1)


As they were about to part company, she once again implored the priest to pass along a message for her, the message contained a promise that only the two of them would know about. -  Bai Juyi, Song of Everlasting Regret, 3.1.71 (2)


When I die, your name, like the last petal of a flower,

will gently fall upon my lips. Your fingers
are a string of keys, tinkling like jewels,
held in my hand. Which doors
would you let me open, 
let me open wide?


To hold your hand and die is a thing of fortune, 

to hear you say you still love me, to hear you say
the phoenix after death is still the phoenix,
spring after death is still spring (3), yet at least
there was one May which was ever ours.

Every gray hair is still trembling for you, every one still shivering deeply.

Remember all the old times, remember:
you stepped on the place where a red lotus blossomed,
you stood on the place where a narcissus sprouted,  (4)
you stood in the wind, your skirt danced lightly, your hair danced lightly. (5)

Put your ear on my chest, 

listen to what my heart says. It is tired, so tired,
it has already exceeded its age by pondering, pondering so much,
it pounds so strongly, pounds ever so strongly, 
love is too heavy for it, love.

One extreme of love is here, the other end

is in the beginning.
Our first meeting was at Lantian (6),
before that one, on the shore of the Luo River (7),
at the origin of history, in the blue sea, in a misty nebula (8) -
on the memory outside of memory, the other end of love.

Our next meeting, where will it be, where will it be?

You tell me, you tell me, I will listen to you.
(do you believe in reincarnation, do you believe?)
The black sleeve of death obstructs my senses, I can't see clearly - oh!
I can hear now: I must go.


NOTES:

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Guangzhong
(2) https://en.wikisource.org/?curid=65855%7C
(3) The universe will continue being the universe even after the dead of individual beings. The wheel of Samsara continues to spin. And yet, this particular reincarnation of both lovers can call one moment theirs. Eternity is not homogeneous, and individual existences have their own value. This value, it also seems is not predetermined: it is a thing of fortune, of luck (represented by the narcissus flower).
(4) The red lotus (sanskrit: kamala, scientific: mallotus phillipensis) represents the original nature and purity of the heart and is associated with love, compassion (and passion) of Avalokiteshvara, or Guanyin in Chinese. The narcissus flower is associated with luck and fortune. 
(5) Red Lotus, Narcissus and the Wind: perhaps it is too far-fetched an interpretation, but I read this as a cosmical representation of hell, earth (purified in the Buddhas) and heaven.
(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantian_County . Apart from Yu's typical nostalgia for the mainland, the symbolism of Lantian is lost on me.
(7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_River_(Shaanxi). Same as Lantian.

(8) "Misty" (ài ài, 叆叆) is a pun on "love" (ài, 爱). The cosmical love located at the origin of the universe is one of the "extremes" or "ends" of a long thread of love, whose other "end" is located right there where the two lovers are.

ORIGINAL TEXT



下次的约会


  ——临别殷勤重寄词,词中有誓两心知

当我死时,你的名字,如最后一瓣花

自我的唇上飘落。你的手指
是一串串钥匙,玲玲珑珑
握在我手中,让我开启
让我豁然开启,哪一扇门?
 
握你的手而死是幸运的
听你说,你仍爱我,听你说
凤凰死后还有凤凰
春天死后还有春天,但至少
有一个五月曾属于我们
 
每一根白发仍为你颤抖,每一根潇骚
都记得旧时候,记得
你踩过的地方绽几朵红莲
你立的地方喷一株水仙
你立在风中,裙也翩翩,发也翩翩
 
覆你的耳朵于我的胸膛
听我的心说,它倦了,倦了
它已经逾龄,为甄甄啊甄甄
它跳得太强烈,跳得太频
爱情给它太重的负荷,爱情
 
爱情的一端在此,另一端
在原始
上次约会在蓝田
再上次,在洛水之滨
在洪荒,在沧海,在星云的叆叆
在记忆啊记忆之外,另一端爱情
 
下次的约会在何处,在何处?
你说呢,你说,我依你
(你可相信轮回,你可相信?)
死亡的黑袖挡住,我看不清楚,可是
嗯,我听见了,我一定去