Tianjin Explosion and other Modern Chinese Anxieties:
Introducing the Poetry of Steve Chen

天津爆炸和现代社会的一些焦虑：陈波的诗

Poetry written in both Chinese and English by author.
Posted April 14, 2016

Art of Man and Woman

Marriage confiscates

surplus tenderness between the two sexes.

The only commodities available are

life necessities, including

routine greetings

and swollen lungs--

a syndrome of speechlessness.

As breathing thickens,

Day yields a wet dream.

We perform the residue of pleasure

on each other’s body

God created the penis

to penetrate moldy truth.

Man sharpens the kitchen knife

and flies in his longjohns.

Woman grinds her makeup into powder,

dedicated to coughing as she does.

The feeling is as unspeakable

as an aphrodisiac.

两性艺术

婚姻制度充公多余的

两性温情

可供选购的生活必需品包括

柴米油盐，客套语

还有肿胀的肺叶——

一场失语的并发症

呼吸日渐粘稠

日子惯例性地梦遗

在对方湿漉漉的身体上

我们表演余欢

上帝捏造的阳具

戳穿发霉的真相

男人擦拭生活的刀

在秋裤里腾飞

女人研磨粉底

但其本职是咀嚼百日咳

情感如春药难以启齿

Tianjin Explosion

That weekend my friends and I gathered.

Xiaomai sighed as she usually does.

My punk friend was a little stoned,

he even forgot to say his Fuck.

I read too much news during work,

But I didn’t know what to say.

At the table next to us,

a group of people were eating and drinking,

drowning our conversation.

We side-eyed them,

Chinese steely stomach can digest the heaviest cloud.

Outside, neon lights blinked the crawling night.

To kill the silence, my friend proposed a toast.

To what?

Well, to Tianjin then.

In our impotence,

we swallowed our beer,

knowing our anger would, like truth,

be gone

like a hangover.

In the end we left early,

I returned home, and wrote a poem

that doesn’t sound like a poem.

天津爆炸

那个周末我和朋友聚在一起。

她像往常一样不停地叹气。

喜欢朋克的朋友变得有点呆滞，

都忘了说操你妈。

我上班时浏览了很多新闻，

但什么都说不出来。

旁边的饭桌上，

一群人吃地锣鼓喧天，

淹没的了我们的对话。

我们怔怔地看着，

中国人强大的胃能消化凝重的云。

外面，红色的霓虹冷不丁地闪烁。

为打破沉静，朋友举起杯子。

敬什么？我问。

那……就敬天津吧！

在集体的无力里

我们狠狠喝了一口，

知道我们的愤怒最后会和真相一样

模糊地像一场宿醉。

后来大家早早地散了，

我回到家，

写了一首不太像诗的诗。

Chen Bo (陈波)

Responses written in Chinese and English by Steve. 答案都由陈波亲自写。

1. Why did you choose to share these two poems with the international world?
你为什么选择这两首诗和国际读者分享？

I hoped these China-specific topics could be realized by international readers.
我希望这两首诗国际读者易于接受些。

2. What's your background as a writer? As a non-writer? 
请介绍一下你的个人背景和写作背景

I studied English literature at Beijing University, where I joined a lovely poetry club. In 2014 I worked in a hu*ma*n ri*ghts NGO in Dublin, and started writing in English. I also write short stories and critiques. In my life, I try to care more about political affairs here, which is not always easy.
我在北大学了英文文学，期间和五四文学社一起读诗。2014年我到爱尔兰一个国际非政府组织工作，在那我开始用英文写作。我也写评论和短篇小说。平时，我努力关心时政和生活。

 3. What do you do in Beijing? [Answer as you wish.]
你在北京从事什么工作？

I did consultation in public policy. Now I am considering working in NGOs, however the environment for that kind of work is getting increasingly difficult. I also do freelance translation.我做过公共政策咨询。目前在考虑做非政府组织的工作，虽然眼下大环境并不好。我也做自由职业，主要是翻译。

4. What do you make of the state of poetry in China today? 
你觉得中国诗歌目前的处境如何？

It’s diverse and burgeoning, with quite a few original and experimental poets who merit more acknowledgement than they’ve received. That said, the quality of China’s poetry output is mixed. Also it is polemical as to what constitutes poetry or modern poetry. Besides the Intellectual and the Grassroot (Minjian) division in the center of the arena, China’s poetry society also faces the historic legacy of abused politic discourse, or a de-political discourse, which tends to be the case for younger poets; poetry can sometimes function as a personal sentiment lifejacket, which can contribute to people’s interest in poetry, as well detract from it. 
中国当代诗坛极具多样性，也很繁荣。有一些诗人在原创性和试验性上取得了极高的成就，尽管他们没有得到足够的认可。当然，中国诗歌的整体质量良莠不齐。在关于什么是诗或什么是现代诗的问题上争议很大。除了知识分子写作和民间写作为代表的分野，诗歌也面临历史原因造成的过度政治化的问题（在一些年轻诗人那里，情况相反，是绝对去政治的问题）。在中国诗歌抒情的传统下，诗歌经常被作为个人情绪抒发的出气筒，这扩大了诗歌的群体，同时也限制了诗歌的发展。
 

5. What do you think of the Beijing's Chinese literary scene? Beijing's foreign/international literary scene? (Do you perceive these scenes to exist, and if so, how?) 
你怎么看北京的文学现状？以及北京的外国/国际文学现状？

I would say Beijing continues to be a haven for poetry. The Chinese scene is big, despite the sad fact there are probably more writers than readers. The English community is pretty active, and occasionally we have voices from Asia and Africa.  
北京是诗歌的避风港。比较的中文诗坛很活跃，尽管有时作者比读者多。英语诗歌圈也不小，偶尔能听到一些来自非洲和亚洲国家的声音。 

6. What's most inspiring about Beijing? 
北京最给你灵感的是？ 

Its diversity and dynamics. On a side note, its political myth as the capital of power is sort of fantasy-provoking.  
北京的魅力在于它的多样性和社会的动态。北京作为权力的中心也提供了某种诡异的想象空间。 

7. What about the Chinese language makes it unique when writing poetry?
你觉得中文有什么特性吗？以及是否给诗歌写作带来了独特的面貌？

It’s hard to define, but it is definitely there in the air. I think the feel of a language is cultivated, like that of a certain food. The Chinese language is unique enough with its immediate tones, its elusiveness of meaning (thanks to its sparser syntactic structure and overloaded historical connotations), etc. Possibly because of that, I find Chinese language less analytic, allowing for greater flexibility in terms of imagistic creativity and it can somehow result in a wilder style. 
语言的特性很难说，虽然飘渺但肯定存在，就像是一个地区的饮食的口感。中文的声调比较特殊。由于句法规则的灵活和词汇丰富的历史蕴含，中文语词的意义体现游移和空的一面。也许是基于此，中文的思辨性和分析性没有那么强，在意象上却获得了极大的创作空间，有时产生一种粗野的自由风格。

8. How does it differ from writing poetry in English?
中文和英文诗歌写作有何不同？

I guess with English, you can rely more on the form (in a broader sense), as something to play with. With Chinese, besides its different texture, a poet often has to deal with the sheer amount of its historical references and intertextuality (some poets manage this by dismissing them).
我觉得英文可以用来进行诗歌试验的形式（句法学意义上的广义形式）更多。而中文的质地不同，诗人也常常需要面对深厚的历史语境和互文性。（有些诗人采取的策略是将其摈弃）。

9. What challenges do you face in expressing yourself in poetry in English? In translating into English?
你在用英文写作时是否遇到挑战？翻译的时候呢？

Vocabulary is a disadvantage, so is cultural background. As to translation, actually I find translating into English not as difficult as translating into Chinese sometimes. 
词汇和文化背景是个挑战。至于翻译，有时我觉得英文翻译成中文更难。

10. What do you want to tell readers of this interview [which are mostly 25-35 year-old educated Chinese Youth and Westerners with an interest in China's art scene]? 
你有什么话想对我们的读者说吗？

I believe poetry has potential to break down boundaries, physical or metaphysical, and more mutual familiarity from either side of the Chinese-Western divide would be good. 
我相信诗歌能打破一些物理的和形而上的疆界。我希望中外之间能多些相互了解。