Chapter 11 among schoolchildren
among schoolchildren
1
I asked as I walked, passing through the long classroom,
The kind old nun with a white turban answered the questions,
Children learn to do arithmetic and practice singing
Studying all kinds of readers, and history,
Cutting and sewing require cleanliness,
The best and newest styles - kids every now and then
Out of curiosity, it is inevitable to look up
A smiling figure in his sixties.
2
I meditate on a figure like Leda
Bend over the dying fire, she talked about her childhood
a severe reproach or a small incident
A day that turned out to be a tragedy in the heart of a child——
This lecture is when our two young hearts
Melting into a single space like sympathy,
Or, to paraphrase Plato's famous simile,
Turned into egg yolk and white, blended into one.
3
Thinking of that bout of sadness or anger back then,
Let me look at this one and that child again,
Guess if she also had such a demeanor back then——
Because the swan's daughter will also bear
Every wading-fowl hereditary endowment—
And hair and face of the same color,
Just thinking about it makes my heart skip a beat,
She lived in front of me, transformed into a fluffy girl.
4
Her present image floated into my mind,
Is it the shaping of the hand of the fifteenth century,
Its cheeks sunken, as if it only drank air,
Just eat enough shadows to be full?
Though I was never descended from Leda,
Had beautiful feathers too—enough, well,
It is best to smile when you meet someone, to show that you are happy.
The old grass man lives in comfort.
5
Young mother with a figure on her lap
(That is the skin of the "reproductive honey" leaked to the world,
Decisions based on recall or “forgotten medicine”
must sleep, scream, struggle to escape),
How would she look at her son, seeing only the top of the man's head
Covered in white with sixty winter scenery,
as repayment for the pain of giving birth to her son,
Worried about his future in the world?
6
Plato thought nature was nothing but bubbles
Ghostly kaleidoscopic diagrams teasing things;
Solid Aristotle wields birch bars,
Will whip a king of kings ass;
The golden femur Pythagoras, known to all,
plucking a bow or strings to figure out
The chord that the star sang, the lazy god heard:
A piece of cloth tied to an old pole to scare the birds!
7
Nuns and mothers, both classes worship idols,
But the countenance illuminated by candlelight cannot
To stir up any mother's wishful thinking,
Only stone or bronze statues can rest in peace.
But they're also heartbreaking - shades,
The Supreme known to Passion, Piety, and Love!
The pomp of all high glory,
A mocker of the self-sufficiency of human enterprise!
8
Toil itself is flowering, dancing,
As long as the body does not please the soul and injures itself,
Beauty is not born of regretful chagrin,
Confused wisdom does not come from dim lights and dark nights.
Chestnut tree, Oiran flower with a strong root,
Are you a leaf, a flower, or a stem?
The body swaying with the music, the shining eyes!
How can we distinguish the dance from the dancer?
Translated by Bian Zhilin