Xiao Shui

Xiao Shui, born in Chenzhou, Hunan in 1980, has a degree in law and Chinese Literature from Fudan University. His published collections include Lost and Found, Chinese Class, and Chinese Mugwort: New Jueju Poetry.

肖水：1980年生于湖南郴州，先后就读于复旦大学法学院、中文系。出版诗集《失物认领》《中文课》《艾草：新绝句集》。

 

Translators:

Irene Chen is a translator, writer, editor from Harbin who enjoys reading, writing and listening to good stories.

Judith Huang is a writer, editor, and translator from Singapore who also illustrates postcards. She has a huge soft spot for bunnies.

 

Edited by Chen Bo, Kassy Lee.

 

 

离魂异客

 

那年他七岁，父亲倒在家里，他拿起电话，并不惊慌。

画家母亲后来改嫁一位退役将军，而他依旧选择通过自残逃避兵役。

他从韩国大田来。他在出租车上突然吻我，又淡然地像石头从石头上蒸发。

终于要告别中国，在机场的酒店里，他决定再体会一次陌生人的快乐。

 

Wandering Soul

 

He was seven that year, when his father fell down at home, he picked up the phone, not panicking at all.

His mother, a painter, remarried a retired general, while he chose to avoid enlistment through self-mutilation.

He came from Daejeon, South Korea. In the taxi he gave me an unexpected kiss, then became distant again, like a stone evaporating from a stone.

Finally leaving China, in an airport hotel, he decided to once more experience the thrill of a stranger.

 

 ~

 

末日物候

 

那时候我们一家住在库区，父亲是附近林场的伐木工，

母亲经营着小杂货店，她经常要去县城进货，有时候回来晚了，

渡船开到湖心，会停掉马达，静静飘着。岸边漫山遍野都是白鹭，

被淹没的民居偶尔从水底露出来，上面挂满了湿滑的水草。

 

 

Doomsday Phenology

 

Back then my family lived near the reservoir, my father a lumberjack,

my mother a small grocer, her trips into town to restock would sometimes keep her late,

and when her ferry reached the center of the lake, the engine switched off, we would quietly float. Countless egrets engulfed the shore, while the flooded houses would occasionally emerge, covered in soggy weeds.

 

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