The moonlight at my door is white. It flashes by like weaponry. A shattered scenery resolves into sweet and sharpened drops of candy. Bit by bit, they prick the slightly-slanted corners of your eyes. 我门前的月光很白 像某种兵器一闪而过 破碎的景象慢慢坚实 变成甜蜜的有点尖锐的球形糖果 一颗一颗 刺穿你微微倾斜的眼角 Return to table of contents for Issue 2 Winter 2010
Translation
CACTUS (THE IMMORTAL PALM) 仙人掌 by Xiao Qiao (translated by Cindy M. Carter)
The Chinese word for cactus, 仙人掌, translates as “Palm of the Immortals.” The cactus grows not from immortal arms, but vainly from the sands, thirsting for a surgery: Oh cut me, cut me open, let me hear the water gush from me… Comes a western trader, peddling wigs as sleek as silver, whose merchant-eyes pierce […]
THE DARK VALLEY from Boccaccio’s Eclogues (translated by David R. Slavitt)
X. THE DARK VALLEY LYCIDAS: Dorilus, poor fellow, it doesn’t seem to matter whether Orion sends rain to the earth, or Amon flowers, or whether the Crab brings crickets to chirp in the heat, or Chiron strips the leaves from the trees, I always see you with your head bent and tears welling up […]
THE JACKAL’S BAPTISM by Abdellatif Laâbi (translated by Gordon Hadfield and Nancy Hadfield)
DRAMATIS PERSONAE Sycophant 1 : : Sycophant 2 : : Sycophant 3 : : High Priestess : : Madwoman 1 : : Madwoman 2 Madwoman 3 : : General : : Victor : : Blind Poet : : Neanderthal Man 1 : : Neanderthal Woman 1 Neanderthal Man 2 : : Neanderthal Woman 2 : […]
