英译：殊不方《广州混响曲》之新冠折叠广州，或吾母不越天河南乃老织女的最后倔强

Canton Polyphony

COVID-19 Turned Over Guangzhou, or My Mother Refused to Cross Tianhenan District Which Is the Last Obstinacy of the Old Weaver.

Shu Bufang, translated by Yan Zhou

On April 9th, Guangzhou Baiyun District was marked with a moderate risk alert of COVID-19, according to the classified pandemic prevention policy of the city, and schools turned to online classes. Many residents of my neighbourhood Tianhenan were given the yellow code and later changed to green, and back to yellow again, on and off for several times. On the 13th, my mother, who lives in Wuyangcunof Yuexiu District, came to my place to bring the textbooks her son needed for online classes, she also brought vegetables and fruits. She stopped at the Tianhe Overpass and hesitated, worrying that her green code would turn yellow if she proceeded. She called me to meet her where she stopped and pick up things she carried. Under the cause of COVID-19, the spatial control between two city districts has such power of intimidation. I record this with the poem.

Who says that the He is wide? It will not admit a little boat…

My mother the old weaver, who lives with my father the cowboy in the mundane world of Tianhe,

They have no old ox, villagers of Five Goats who have no sheep to herd.

My mother the old weaver travelled up north, to send me

messages of the world, and the newly grown vegetables.

My mother the old weaver arrived at the junction, stopped and hesitated:

Zhongshan Overpass, it is the Forbidden Area today—

My mother dared not to risk her green code.

How lovely is my mother! She awaited me at a corner of the city…

“My son Bu Fang, I cannot step in the same River of Heaven twice, I wait for you to pick up.”

I rode on the mottled horse of yellow and green codes, the motley is not the tiger skin that I wished to wear.

I did not break through the controlled area, and was not from the preventive place,

“According to big data, you have recently stayed in some hotpot place”,

Space-time companion, space-time crossing, space and time wish to be stilled

but it was disturbed and rippled… thousands of residents of the neighbourhood

turned to yellow with me, anxiously waiting to be green again.

I was gathering and gathering the mouse-ear, but could not fill my shallow basket…

My mother the old weaver, who had abandoned her weaving skills for long,

She did not carry a bamboo basket, instead, she shouldered a translucent plastic bag

in which potatoes were discernable, peas were fresh,

carrots and pitaya jingled,

and grandson’s textbooks, notebooks, homework, and stationery clashed and clanged,

“As you are staying at home, do coach the lad study and surpass the others,”

The old weaver worried too much about online classes, she baked a bigpastry and woven a huge net.

O mother, O Heaven, why would you not understand me?

“Mom, the online class could only force one to dress upside down.”

My mother the old weaver, please do not hurry, you need some quiet time right away;

Above and under the overpass, car beeps and car wheels rose the tide of morning rush

for this forbidden area; traffic lights turned green to yellow and yellow to red,

how distressful. “She was returning to home, and far did I escort her to the south”,

mom, I would turn around, go home, teach online class, and work telecommuting,

wait for the harassing announcements of “test three times in seven days” from electric speakers and in WeChat Groups,

I will now be poked to test nucleic acid, hoping my yellow code will not remain forever…

Notes:

1: The poet invented a new Chinese poetry form like glosa poem, he quotes seven lines from seven verses of the Book of Songs, with four lines as separate lines and three lines embedded in three stanzas.

2: 新冠折叠广州is translated as COVID-19 Turn Over Guangzhou. The literal meaning of the word 折叠 is “folding”, it may refer to a popular term derived from Hao Jing fang’s novel “Folding Beijing”. I feel “folding” does not make sense in the English translation of the poem, I choose “turn over” for its multiple meanings: to turn sth upside down; invert; sick, nausea.

3: Tianhenan is a district in Guangzhou, its literal meaning is “south of Tianhe”. The name Tianhe also refers to the Milk Way (or “the River of Heaven) in the myth where Zhinü, the goddess of weaving and the star Vega, was separated from her husband Cowboy and her children by her angry mother The Queen Mother of the West. The poet uses Zhinü, the goddess of weaving to refer to his mother, and links the metaphor with the place name Tianhe.

4: During the pandemic, the Chinese government forced the whole population to use the health code apps to monitor people’s movement, and classified those who tested positive for coronavirus, visited a COVID "hotspot", or were in close contact with someone positive, and marked them red or yellow, while those who are safe green on the apps to enforce control measures.

5: Guangzhou is also named The City of Five Goats. In a legend that five gods in the shapes of five goats brought wheat to Guangzhou and the place became prosperous.

6: "Space-time companions" refers to people whose cellphone shows the person stays in the same space-time grid (range: 800m×800m) with someone who is diagnosed COVID-19 positive for more than 10 minutes, or anyone whose mobile phone number stays in the same space-time grid (range: 800m×800m) with someone who is diagnosed of COVID-19 positive for more than 30 hours accumulatively in the past 14 days. Either one physically passes by or one’s cellphone communication signal drifts by a COVID-19-positive person will be identified as a "space-time companion", and the health code of the identified person will be changed from green to yellow.

Quotes from Books of Songs translated by James Legge:

1. 诗经《卫风·河广》， “曾不容刀” 原指 “难以容纳小木船” 。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Wei -> He Guang《河廣 - He Guang》

誰謂河廣、曾不容刀。

誰謂宋遠、曾不崇朝。

Who says that the He is wide?

It will not admit a little boat.

Who says that Song is distant?

It would not take a whole morning to reach it.

2. 诗经《邶风·静女》，原文：静女其姝，俟我于城隅，意指女子在城边角落等人。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Bei -> 《靜女 - Jing Nu》

靜女其姝、俟我於城隅。

愛而不見、搔首踟躕。

How lovely is the retiring girl!

She was to await me at a corner of the wall.

Loving and not seeing her,

I scratch my head, and am in perplexity.

3. 诗经《周南·卷耳》， “不盈顷筐” 意指 “采不满浅筐” 。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Zhou And The South -> 《卷耳 - Juan Er 》

采采卷耳、不盈頃筐。

嗟我懷人、寘彼周行。

I was gathering and gathering the mouse-ear,

But could not fill my shallow basket.

With a sigh for the man of my heart,

I placed it there on the highway.

4. 诗经《鄘风·柏舟》，意为：母亲啊，老天啊，不体谅人家的心啊!

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Yong -> 《柏舟 - Bo Zhou》

汎彼柏舟、在彼中河。

髧彼兩髦、實維我儀。

之死矢靡它。

母也天只、不諒人只。

It floats about, that boat of cypress wood,

There in the middle of the He.

With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead,

He was my mate;

And I swear that till death I will have no other.

O mother, O Heaven,

Why will you not understand me?

5. 诗经《齐风·东方未明》，原文：东方未明，颠倒衣裳，形容匆忙失序。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Qi -> 《東方未明 - Dong Fang Wei Ming》

東方未明、顛倒衣裳。

顛之倒之、自公召之。

Before the east was bright,

I was putting on my clothes upside down;

I was putting them on upside down,

And there was one from the court calling me.

6. 诗经《邶风·燕燕》，原意为女子出嫁，送至南方。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Bei -> 燕燕 - Yan Yan》

燕燕于飛、下上其音。

之子于歸、遠送于南。

瞻望弗及、實勞我心。

The swallows go flying about;

From below, from above, comes their twittering.

The lady was returning [to her native state],

And far did I escort her to the south.

I looked till I could no longer see her,

And great was the grief of my heart.

7. 诗经 《周南·卷耳》，原文：我姑酌彼兕觥，维以不永伤，意指且先斟满大杯酒，免我心中长悲伤。

Book of Poetry -> Lessons from the states -> Odes Of Zhou And The South -> 《卷耳 - Juan Er 》

陟彼高岡、我馬玄黃。

我姑酌彼兕觥、維以不永傷。

I was ascending that lofty ridge,

But my horses turned of a dark yellow.

I will now take a cup from that rhinoceros' horn,

Hoping I may not have long to sorrow.

诗人John Reibetanz读英译后信中说：

I enjoyed the poem very much, and found the notes extremely helpful. It’s a sobering poem, movingly contrasting the poet’s cultural freedom — as he moves in and out of the past — with the constriction of his present situation under the government’s Covid regulations.

诗人原作