Poems by Hsia Yü

Tied Up and Waiting

Use your psychic power to bend a piece of metal
Use your psychic power to stop the hands of a clock
Use your psychic power to flick off the switch
I can smell you in my skin
I can smell you in my skin
I can smell you in my skin
I’m experiencing what is more what is more I am experiencing the experience

As for the rest
Let me carve it character by character on a single grain of rice
As for the rest
Let me carve it word by word on that strand of hair
As for the rest
I brought the ransom to the agreed upon location
I came at the appointed time

But the kidnapper never showed his face
He’s always been so hesitant
I can’t understand this hesitation on his part
I never even called the police
I don’t even know the person he’s holding
I too have been lured by the graceful style of being taken
By this business of being tied up and waiting

— translated by Steve Bradbury

Photo of Pink Noise © 2008 by vivienjames.

from Pink Noise

11 Plenty of chances to see old friends and relatives

They missed plenty of chances
To see their old friends and relatives
They are severely agitated personalities
Who hunger constantly
To express all the myriad thoughts in their heads
But often they have no one to listen to
They want another chance
An omniscient narrator who does not appear in the poem
He’s like a creaking pendulum teetering back and forth with narrations
He can’t afford to replace

— written in English by the poet

11 Massive opportunities to see old relatives and friends

They long for massive opportunities
See old relatives and friends
They are the serious place the individuality which agitates
Who often thirsts
Express in their heads all the countless methods
But often there is nobody listening attentively
They long for other opportunities
An omniscient narrator who does not appear in the poem
He is like a loud creaky pendulum stumbling over and over in his narrative
He cannot replace them

— a back translation by Steve Bradbury, off Sherlock’s Chinese version

Cinema Is Superseding the Gaze

All you have to do is find yourself some amateur actors
And a bargain-basement video cam
That can film in natural light and ambient sound
Your actors don’t even have to act
In fact you’re better off
If they just glance now and then at the camera
And move around a bit
Exchanging the occasional line of conversation
We have all the time in the world
For we’re making a road movie
And it should be pretty good
Turns out one of the actors is seriously narcoleptic
Which is why we have this baby alarm

— from Poetry Now 10, translated by Steve Bradbury

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