Poetry from The Literary Review
32nd Thirtember
Yip Fai
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The old man under the shade of the tree said: memory is a river It used to be a long river, it changed its course and flowed upstream In Studio August I turned over photos sepia with age On the eighth day you dug out bones speckled with stains Autumn birds twittered searching amidst fallen leaves for the expiry date Snowflakes fell on a muddy square to freeze summer’s insect eggs The island had gone a little senile some three centuries ago Love and procreation remained entwined night and day The river was dry, the riverbed cracked like a criss-cross tortoise shell Then came spring tides afloat with condoms and afterbirth I’m on the football pitch playing an inter-school soccer match of thirty years ago You’re in a game shop playing Space Adventure of thirty years from now All my life I’ve been trying to recall the forgotten days In the end I gave up and just scribbled: 32nd Thirtember Translated from the Chinese by Martha P.Y. Cheung
--Love Across Species in a Prosperous Age
You always rely on your taciturnity and air bubbles To dilute trendy love and desires You always sink to the bottom in cold arrogance To blend quietly with the burning passions of a prosperous age Tortoise spectacles, crocodile belts Banqueting men and women elegantly dressed Ribbons, bow ties and swallow tails Demonstrating to foreign tribes propriety and impropriety The exoticism of trendy fashions At times fits perfectly into the gourmet scene At times strains the laws on polite eating and drinking Resisting in silence their silent constraints The sense of taste has tamed into the sense of sight Species of different origins Are engaged in meta-discourse Deconstructing the theme across the water tank An autumn for the eyes ears tongue nose and throat Hails from afar the appetite of summer The caress of garlic cheese and broth The sizzling and torture of the shell and the meat South of the throat and chest cannot suppress The instinct north of the knees and legs Primitive desires panting Climb the ladder hanging down from heaven We size up the accessories on each other’s outfits Wondering what tricks they harbour What underwear they allude to What rhetoric they reveal You are my Issey Miyake An asymmetrical whirl-around wrap I am your Master Chef Chan Dong Countering the trend with ancient recipes Translated from the Chinese by Martha P.Y. Cheung Editor's Note: Yip Fai's poems were originally published in Dialogue Through Poetry Anthology, 2001. Published electronically by the Dialogue Through Poetry Organization. |
