Dissertation Retreat Day 6

The Poet Yu Jian 于坚

Still not dead, as one of my best friends says on his blog. The last week has been devoted to dissertation work in the mornings until 3:30, and my progress has been...distinctly satisfactory, I think. I've almost finished all of the readings I want to do for this chapter of my dissertation, and today the mean time I have created a really substantive outline. Tomorrow I will devote myself to choosing the passages that I will use.

Meanwhile, translation work continues apace. Here's my version of a poem by Yu Jian called "Death Scene for a Butterfly."

A butterfly died in the rainy season     A butterfly
In broad daylight I still see her alone, run through by the New York subway
I still worry    She might hurry home in the dark
That death surrounded by blue flashes
A golden, fuzzy blob    Dance partner to the sunshine and blue sky
Kicked by lightning and rain into deep mud.
By then the leaves clung closely to the tree     Closing eyes
Star after star drowning in the dark black water
This death makes the summer vexed     Dark days
Will continue this way till September
A butterfly died in the rainy season
This is a bit of small news
In the clear morning I walk past that puddle.
See those beautiful fragments
My heart suddenly struck by the small, small death
I begin to remember, during last night’s sturm und drang
I was sitting just out of hearing
Missing a butterfly.


一只蝴蝶在雨季死去 一只蝴蝶

就在白天 我还见她独自在纽约地铁穿过

我还担心 她能否在天黑前赶回家中

那死亡被蓝色的闪电包围

金色茸毛的昆虫　阳光和蓝天的舞伴

被大雷雨踩进一滩泥浆

那时叶子们紧紧抱住大树 闭着眼睛

星星淹死在黑暗的水里

这死亡使夏天忧伤 阴郁的日子

将要一直延续到九月

一只蝴蝶在雨季死去

这本是小事一桩

我在清早路过那滩积水

看见那些美丽的碎片

心情忽然被这小小的死亡击中

我记起就在昨夜雷雨施暴的时候

我正坐在轰隆的巨响之外

怀念着一只蝴蝶