Singapore-born Chow Teck Seng writes poetry primarily in Chinese. Frequently contributing to literary journals, anthologies and the Chinese press in Singapore and abroad, he has won awards such as the Singapore Literature Prize (2014) and Golden Point Award (2009). His poems in English translation are found in & Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond (2010), Union: 15 Years of Drunken Boat, 50 Years of Writing from Singapore (2015), SG Poems 2015–2016 and the online journal, Poetry at Sangum. They have also been adapted as short films by students of Lasalle College of the Arts in 2017. A former lecturer (in Chinese-language literature) at the National University of Singapore and National Institute of Education, he is currently pursuing a PhD at Cambridge University.
出入停车场*
车子持续倒退
到位、无回、不悔
不能够有发光的青春碎片
火箭降落了
回忆开走了
柏拉图像飞走的伞
停车场常伪装为一枚句号
习惯系上了安全带
预备在车程中观赏一段周而复始的连续剧
雨刷的动作让我以为这是一出怀旧电影
预感是影印出来的大海
眼神是指南针
望后镜中的目光终于接近最熟悉最普通的温柔
不是错位，不能忘记回过身
原来停车场亦不是逗号
明天和旅程不会重复
街灯和拉上的手控刹车器轻声告诉你
停车是一道暧昧不清、赤裸的分号
停顿的微光和下车的脚步声
连身裙似的把错落情节依次缝起
下雨的停车场像停尸间
送走的尸体刚走掉的幸福
Entering/Exiting a Carpark
By Chow Teck Seng
The car keeps backing
into position, no return, no regret –
no longer possessing the shiny shards of youth.
The rocket has landed.
The memory has wandered off.
Plato, like a flyaway brolly.
The carpark frequently disguises itself as a full stop.
Habitually buckling up the seatbelt
preparing to enjoy a repetitive miniseries during the journey –
the wiping effect makes me think of this as a nostalgic film.
Premonition is a xeroxed sea.
Between the eyes, the needle of a compass.
Within that rear-view glance, finally a most familiar and mundane tenderness.
Not a dislocation, but unable to forget ever turning back.
So the carpark is also not a comma.
The next day, as well as the journey, will not repeat.
Streetlamps and the pulled handbrake softly inform you
that a car, stopping, is an unclear and naked semicolon.
The taillights and the sound of alighting footsteps
stitch up the misaligned scenes like garment seams.
The carpark, in the rain, is like the fleeing
happiness of a corpse that has just left the mortuary.
(Translation by Yong Shu Hoong)