Part of an oil painting by LU ZAO

The Human Vessel

By Lu Zao

Man will eventually find that he is a machine
This machine eats, drinks and does odd jobs
works his butt off, still considers himself to be human
It researches the machinery and makes techniques
Some of them are very useful, others of little use
the sensible one is enlightened, and the enlightened
wants to get out of there, not be a human vessel

The rapacious is a human vessel, the greedy, the angry,
the stupid is also; and the slow, the doubter is still.
His flesh, blood, skeleton and physical body, so simple but
complicated is the human vessel. The smart one has upper quality;
the secondary just ordinary; the stupid only is the shoddy stuff
Never talk about this metropolis, as well as your own vexation
It must be fate, they reinforce and swap each other, cyclically

Eggplant bok-choy noodle opposes oil noodle with chilli
it can hide the poetry broad-minded. On a date with melon and fruit
lychees are like skins of a wheat field unpeelable. They just walking it
from east to west, south to north; from poetry, painting, calligraphy
to trousseau and utensils. A lot of private learning，from spring flowers
and autumn moon to formation art, the suffering and the glory
Our generation is an episode of books, historic human vessel illustrations.

May 26, 2017/ tr. by Chen Zihong

人器

卢枣

人终将发现，自己就是一台机器
这台机器吃饭喝水干杂活
当牛做马学文化，还以为是个啥
机器研究机器，机器制造机制
有些机器作用很大，有些很小
明白了的，叫“开悟”，开悟的
就想逃出去，不作这样的人器

馋的是人器，贪的是人器，嗔的
是人器，痴的也是人器，还有慢的
疑的。骨肉、气血、皮囊，简单却
复杂的人器。聪慧的，上根利器；
中等的，庸常之器；愚拙的，下根钝器
莫说这都市，莫说自己的烦恼
人器因缘合和，五行相生，轮换之质

同油泼辣子面对立的一种茄子白菜面
可掩藏旷想的离骚，同瓜枣相会的荔枝
剥不开麦田的皮肤。他们在行走
从东到西，从南到北，从诗词书画
到妆奁器皿。还有许多私藏的学问
从春花秋月到排兵布阵，苦难与辉煌
一代人，就是一集书，史册的人器图。

2017.5.26

卢枣， 画家、诗人，现居成都。