Questions for The People
The People have no face, those with a face are Zhang and Li
Even if Zhang’s and Li’s faces are indistinct
The distinct faces are Jia Baoyu’s and Lin Daiyu’s
The even more distinct faces are those of the actors who play Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu
If you are crazy you are not the People,
If you are odd you are not the People,
The People can catch a cold or run a fever but never be crazy or strange
The People draw a border between those who steal a little and those who steal a lot
The leader of the People is not the People
The leader of the People could be overthrown by the People
Anyone overthrown by the People could be rehabilitated by the People
The People are capricious but the People have no face
To stay out of trouble is to give up your face amid the People
To be content with a quiet life is to not discuss the matter of faces
But to be sentenced to death is to be banished by the People but given a face
But to be sentenced to death with reprieve implies the People are unsure about being merciful
In the distance the People are beautiful
In the distance the People are a silent majority
When the People are noisy, the People have come near
People who love distance argue with people who don’t love distance, and the People listen
Are the People in the distance people?
When the People come near are they people or are they the People?
What’s the difference? Maybe the difference
Is that people can be loved or deported, but the People cannot
July 3, 2015
对人民的疑问
人民没有面孔，有面孔的是张三李四
甚至连张三李四也面孔模糊
面孔清晰的是贾宝玉和林黛玉
面孔更清晰的是贾宝玉和林黛玉的扮演者
如果你是疯子你就不是人民，
如果你是怪人你就不是人民，
人民感冒发烧但人民既不疯也不怪
人民在窃珠者和窃国者之间划出界限
人民里的领头人不是人民
人民里的领头人有可能被人民打倒
被人民打倒的人有可能被人民平反
人民好任性啊但人民没有面孔
洁身自好就是放弃了面孔在人民之中
甘于平庸就是不讨论面孔这回事
而被判处死刑就是被人民开除并被赋予面孔
而被判处死缓说明人民犹豫是否要开恩
远方的人民是美丽的
远方的人民是沉默的大多数
当人民嗡嗡作响，人民就来到近旁
爱远方和不爱远方的人争吵，人民听着
远方的人民就是人类吧？
当人民来到近旁他们是人民还是人类？
有什么区别吗?可能的区别是
人类只能被爱不能被驱遣但人民不是
2015.7.3
Poem by Xi Chuan. Translations by Lucas Klein.
Xi Chuan 西川 (author), penname of Liu Jun 刘军, was born in Jiangsu in 1963 but grew up in Beijing, where he still lives. One of contemporary China’s most celebrated poets, having won the Lu Xun Prize for Literature (2001) and the Zhuang Zhongwen Prize (2003), he is also one of its most hyphenated littérateurs—teacher-essayist-translator-editor-poet, and has been described by American writer Eliot Weinberger as a “polymath, equally at home discussing the latest American poetry or Shang Dynasty numismatics.” A graduate of the English department of Beijing University, where his thesis was on Ezra Pound’s Chinese translations, he is currently professor Creative Writing at Beijing Normal University. He was recently awarded Sweden’s Cikada Prize.