Nianxi Chen
Translated from the Chinese by Melisa Cahnmann and Kuo Zhang
The yard is bright.—–On the edge I sit under eaves and watch a spider
weaving its web——–on this clear afternoon.
Old body——————brown and black,
it weaves a web wide and round
between a peach and pear tree.
Obviously, it’s futile.
As the wind blows the tree,————–a corner of the web is torn.
Another gust blows the tree,————another corner torn.
It weaves a dense web,———as if nothing happened,
all afternoon,————its whole life.
Across the darkened sky,—————-the clouds’ chaos no longer flies.
Dusk falls from high places.————-A moth comes from far to near.
The distant dogs barking and the singing of cicadas – all stick to the web.
The broad bean pods cracking——–slogans of “mass struggle” from forty years ago.
All living things spun from wandering into this portrait.
Father———–it’s already been three years
of gossamer, clinging to your silent grave.
Note: Mass struggle sessions or denunciation rallies were violent public spectacles in Maoist China. They happened frequently during the Cultural Revolution. During the Struggle Sessions, people accused of being “class enemies” were publicly humiliated, accused, beaten and tortured by people with whom they were close.
一只蜘蛛，或者父亲
院子明亮—坐在檐坎上看一只蜘蛛
在这个青天白日的午后—-它在织一张网
它有些老了—-周身褐黑
它把一张网织得又大又圆
在桃树和梨树之间
显然是徒劳的
风吹树动—-网被扯破一角
又一阵风吹树动—–又一个角被扯破
它密密地织着—-仿佛什么也没有发生过
整个下午都是这样—-一辈子都是这样
转暗的天空—-乱云不再飞渡
黄昏从高处落下来—–一只蛾子由远而近
遥远的狗叫与蝉鸣—-它们都粘挂在了网上
蚕豆裂荚的声响—–四十年前大批斗的口号
游荡中返回的众生的肖像
父亲—-我的三个年景
粘挂在你无声的坟岗
Nianxi Chen, born in 1970 at Danfeng, Shannxi Province. In 1999, he left his hometown and labored as a miner for 16 years across China. In 2015, he couldn’t continue as a miner due to occupational disease. In 2016, he was awarded the Laureate Worker Poet Prize. Chen’s poetry book, Records of Explosion (Taibai Wenyi Press) provides lyrical documentation of the hidden costs behind China’s financial boom. Chen’s poems [Trans. Cahnmann-Taylor & Zhang] have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Rattle, Plume, Pedestal, and ANMLY Magazines.
Melisa Cahnmann, Meigs Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, is the coauthor of The Creative Ethnographer’s Notebook (2024), the poetry book, Imperfect Tense (2016) and five other books on the arts of language and education. Her poems, translations, and essays have appeared in Georgia Review, Bitter Southerner, Lilith, American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, Barrow Street, Mom Egg, Plume, Tupelo, Rattle, Hawaii Pacific Review and elsewhere.
Kuo Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Education at Siena University. Her poem, “One Child Policy” was awarded second place in the 2012 Society for Humanistic Anthropology (SHA) Poetry Competition. Her poems have appeared in The National Poetry Review, Nine Mile Magazine, Mom Egg Review, The Roadrunner Review, Lily Poetry Review, Bone Bouquet, North Dakota Quarterly, Borad River Review, Night Music Journal, Ghost City Review, etc.