Ah Shui and Her Friend in China

-- for Ah Shui, a French girl Astrid

By Cheng Lie

Like that resilient multiflora rose,
to catch up before the dark hour
---striding over phony stripes on the wall westside,
city street of the evening so natural and believable
delivered to every sunburned shoulders faintly.

As passed the library, my heart was silent like a fence
some doors closed, and other people getting older.
Somewhere the days were evenly faraway,
Astrid-Ah Shui,
as though a rose filled with my memory
brought about the light of a lamp with me.
People love nights like this indeed
to love or die cheerfully.

Nameless moment still, the south like sharp metal
beauty of darkness is distributed.
Pointers rotate, and time turns to mill finish bypast
it longs to remove everyone's dirty secret,
and makes them in keeping with real person.

Somewhere, or there, the moon, the stars.
and where French is spoken,
I'm going to show up in front of gods
I'll meet another one in her scrolled rough drawing.
Here's only one unpredictable path
with hazy seven colors
with a place of refuge, a greater hotbed of water and fire.

2003/ translated by Chen Zihong

阿水和她的朋友在中国

                  ——为法国女郎阿水 

程烈

像那些坚韧的蔷薇，
为了赶在不再明亮的时间以前
——翻越西侧院墙虚假的条纹，
让人相信傍晚浑然的街角
已隐约传递到每一副晒得发烫的肩膀上。

经过图书馆，我的心缄默如围栏
一些门关闭了，另一些人老了。
而日子均匀的修远之处
阿斯特丽德——阿水，
似一朵玫瑰填充了记忆
和我缔结过一盏台灯的光明，
人们喜欢这样的夜
心满意足地去爱或者去死。

寂静的无名时刻，南方如同锋利的金属
——散布着黑暗之美。
指针回转，时间投向过去的光面
它渴望取走每一个人肮脏的秘密，
如同真实者的一致。
在某处，或彼处，月亮，星辰
也是在法语开始的地方，
我将出现在众神面前
和另一个人在翻卷的草图上相遇。
这里只有无常的道路
和朦胧的七种颜色，
与隐身处、水与火更大的温床。

2003年