The tenth anniversary issue of Almost Island is now out, featuring sections of my translation of “Taj Mahal Tears” 泰姬陵之泪 by Ouyang Jianghe 欧阳江河–alongside new work by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, John Robert Lee, Régis Bonvicino, and Valerie Mejer Caso. The editors write:
“Taj Mahal Tears” was produced from a visit by Chinese poets to India for the Almost Island Dialogues in 2009. The singular poet Ouyang Jianghe composes this poem from a confluence of streams – those of history, geography, primal emotion, and over all this the almost aerial gaze of a poet-philosopher.
Here is an excerpt:
The tears of 1632 still flow in 2009.
From a pillar of tears a Mughal prince
stands up, the form of a woman appearing in stone.
Tears flow into stone, chiseling through, reticulating,
…….flow stopped,
still flowing. The mutable master of rivers and mountains, tears flow state coffers
empty, flow time itself to its terminus.
Weapons flow past with no sight of warriors.
Sitars flow past without sound of strings.
Dāru in hand, yet drunkenness flows away from the body of the drinker.
Gold, utensils, a dance of arsenic and antimony, flowing away all the same.
And memory and amnesia, and the body’s mixed emotions, nothing can suffer their flowing.1632年的泪水，2009年还在流。
一个莫卧儿君王从泪水的柱子
起身站立，石头里出现了一个女人的形象。
泪水流入石头，被穿凿，被镂空，
完全流不动了，
还在流。这些江山易主的泪水，国库
被它流空了，时间本身被它流尽了。
武器流得不见了武士。
琴弦流得不发出一丝声音。
酒拿在手中，但醉已流去，不在饮者身上。
黄金，器物，舞蹈的砷和锑，流得一样不剩。
还有记忆和失忆，还有肉身的百感交集，全都经不起它流。
Click the image above to read the selection.
