snowynight

◎桃花扇 文/ 洪烛

这把祖传的扇子
注定是属于秦淮河的，秦淮河畔的桃花
开得比别处要鲜艳一些
你溅在扇面上的血迹
是额外的一朵
风是没有骨头的，你摇动的扇子
使风有了骨头

这条河流的传说
注定与一个女人有关
扇子的正面与背面
分别是夜与昼、生与死、爱与恨
是此岸与彼岸。你的手不得不
承担起这一切，夜色般低垂的长发
成了秦淮河的支流

水是没有骨头的，你留下的影子
使水有了骨头

你的扇子是风的骨头
你的影子是水的骨头，至于你的名字
是那一段历史的骨头

别人的花朵轻飘
你的花朵沉甸甸

◎The Peach-Blossom Fan by Hong Zhu tr. Lush Greenness

This ancestral folding silk fan
Undoubtedly belongs to River Qinhuai. The riverside peach trees
Surely bloom more bright-coloured than others elsewhere.
The bloodstains that you spattered on the fan are
Considered the most special ones among the flowers.

The wind had no bones, and you waved a fan
To make the wind own bones.

The legend of this river
Is destined to have something to do with a woman.
The surfaces of the fan, front and back, represent
Respectively: night and day, living and death, love and hatred,
This life and after life. Your hands have to
Commit to all this. Like drooping nightfall, your long hair
Grows into one tributary of Qinhuai River.

The river water had no bones, and you left your shadow in
To have the water possess bones.

Your fan is the bone of the wind,
Your shadow the bone of the water. And your name
The bone for this piece of history.

Other people’s flowers are thought to be light as feathers
But your flowers are always weighing heavily.