穿越大半个中国来睡你She crosses big China to accost you
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爱思英语编者按：近日，女诗人余秀华凭借一首《穿越大半个中国来睡你》红遍网络，而媒体却更多地将焦点放在了她的身体缺陷与社会地位上。她到底是 “脑瘫诗人”还是“中国的迪金森”？
She attained fame overnight, almost rudely. But then she is no ordinary poet, for she has been serving the three muses of poetry, Calliope, Euterpe and Erato, for 16 years. Yu Xiuhua is a farmer and all of 39 years old. She lives in Zhongxiang of Central China`s Hubei province, and has been called by the media as the "poetess with cerebral palsy (a condition characterized by movement problems)". Yu broke through social media WeChat recently after Poetry magazine twitted her poem, Crossing Big China to Sleep With you. Many media outlets have talked about her and her poems but their approach has been somewhat complicated. They have indeed praised her poems saying they carry real feelings and the power to move hearts. But, unwittingly or otherwise, their focus seems to be on her physical and social conditions, with one media outlet describing her as "a countrywoman who composes poems". The woman described by some media outlets as "China`s Emily Dickinson", the famous American poet, dropped out of senior high school, has lived the life of a farmer since and does suffer from cerebral palsy. But none of her physical traits, or the lack of them, have anything to do with her ability to compose poems. In the world of poetry, the only things that matter are words, and the feelings and meanings they carry. And her poem, Crossing Big China to Sleep With You, conveys that feeling, full as it is with passion: "Across China, all is happening: volcanoes are erupting, rivers are running dry...I pressed nights into a dawn to sleep with you, I gathered all I am to sleep with you". That she became famous overnight mainly because of media hype, rather than on the basis of her works, is a reflection of the times we live in. By using offensive epithets such as "poetess with cerebral palsy" or "countrywoman who composes poems", media outlets have succeeded in catching the eyes of readers and viewers. Yet the irony is, without the media offensive, Yu Xiuhua the poet and her works would have remained unknown to ordinary readers. Media reports contrasting Yu`s physical disability with her creative mind have moved, even inspired, many people. True, John Milton overcame his blindness at 43 to be acclaimed as a great English poet and W.B. Yeats, despite his undiagnosed learning disorder, reached the wuthering heights of poetry. But they were different people living in different times. Today, a poet needs more than the medium of poetry to be heard by readers, which speaks volumes about the state of the arts, poetry included, in contemporary society. The 1980s are regarded as the golden age of modern poetry in China, when many poets enchanted readers with their excellent creations. But the fact Yu`s works have touched many people`s hearts today is proof of her poetic power. As literature professor and poet Zang Di has said in an interview, she uses her language as her body. Perhaps the sincerity and purity of thought expressed in Yu`s poems, which today`s society seems devoid of, have drawn readers to her poems. The last word, in this regard, rests with John Keats, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all: Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. If the combination of truth and beauty which Yu seems to represent rekindles people`s passion for poetry, media hype or not, so be it. 穿过大半个中国去睡你 余秀华 其实，睡你和被你睡是差不多的，无非是 两具肉体碰撞的力，无非是这力催开的花朵 无非是这花朵虚拟出的春天让我们误以为生命被重新打开 大半个中国，什么都在发生：火山在喷，河流在枯 一些不被关心的政治犯和流民 一路在枪口的麋鹿和丹顶鹤 我是穿过枪林弹雨去睡你 我是把无数的黑夜摁进一个黎明去睡你 我是无数个我奔跑成一个我去睡你 当然我也会被一些蝴蝶带入歧途 把一些赞美当成春天 把一个和横店类似的村庄当成故乡 而它们 都是我去睡你必不可少的理由 |
