Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Purple Crystal and An Ancient Serpent

(This is a poem of mine written quite a long time ago, but I thought it would be an interesting comparison with the previous post regarding Cathy de Monchaux's art.)

Purple Crystal and An Ancient Serpent

gilded mirage drunken placards
float over pale grapes
wine honey wax oil and
tequila
his liquid tongue is moving back and forth her neck
moving back and forth the frightening lusty constellation around her neck
spirals around groins / you are confined in wild humidity as a fish in raw pleasures
your hipbone a deranged dream
a turn-around a temperature a kiss
her sombre secret cave abstracting mythical beasts and clouds
heavens fall the petals whirling the heavens
falling falling fall and fall
popcorns’ crying holy wrath spirits’ blasphemy
Death of life of life of Death
dying a life of a hundred years’ loneliness
philosophy below her breasts



紫水晶與蛇

紙醉金迷白葡萄
酒,蜜,蠟,油,與
龍舌蘭。
水舌游移/ 頸項的星群悸悸覬覬
鼠蹊的盤旋/ 你是狂熱的魚水之歡
你的髖骨是一場靡亂的夢
一回轉身/ 一種體溫/ 一個吻
陰晦的私處饕餮雲紋
天花亂墜天 花亂
墜墜墜,墜。
爆米花哭泣天神微慍
死的生的生的死
生生死死百年孤寂
胸線以下的哲思

(20th/January/2000)


And... another little one which bears some similarities in style and ambience.


decayed

birds fluttering feathers beasts secretly cringing
as if musk spreading in the mists astray, fading
then never a sound in Death/ nor breath/ not even heart
Death seals and stagnates the pale wax of lights
in her mouth
as if a tooth-filing ceremony as if anaemia as if bleeding

4 comments:

lune_blanc said...

It is completely out of my English ability to describe how I felt, so I just say, the poems sound great with Cathy de Monchaux's art.
(even with my limited vocabulary, I could understand that lol)

Poesis said...

Thank you!! I'm really happy that you like this poem (and that you also feel its affinity to Cathy de Monchaux's art). It is very rare to find someone who can "feel" another's poetry, and always wonderful to have feedback. (My literature teacher during my foundation course is also a poet. He once wrote an 'analysis' of this poem - wow I discovered so many things that I didn't notice before, perhaps they were only subconscious.)

EHWang said...

This is the first time I understand this poem of yours (embarrassing for me to say). I love the Chinese version a lot, it is so rhythmic and fluidic. Must be extremely hard to translate it into English, but you did a great job. It is this English version that helped me understand this poem.

Poesis said...

Not embarrassing at all go-go! And thank you for your comment. Sometimes I don't understand my own poetry either LOL (which is why I discovered a lot of symbolic meanings after reading my teacher's analysis). I just sort of allowed the words to flow and, as you probably know, I always wrote my poems very quickly. If I got stuck, I tended to abandon it and start a new one. I think I like some parts in Chinese more and others in English (the original is in Chinese yes), but when it comes to poetry I always felt I could be more playful, musical and perhaps more visual with Chinese language.

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