Field (I) | Field (II)
Nightfall at the field, dark clouds roll
田野（一）
傍晚的田野上乌云滚过
傍晚的田野上 黑羽的鸟群飞去
田野（一）
傍晚的田野上乌云滚过
傍晚的田野上 黑羽的鸟群飞去
三个背草蓝的孩子匆忙回家
三个背草蓝的孩子在风中回家
数年前 他们在风中回家
乌云滚过村庄
数年前的田野
五月无边的金黄
把黑夜的急雨丢给金黄
把一生的急雨丢给金黄
数年前的三个孩子
背着乌云回家
傍晚的田野上
我怀想着三个背草蓝的孩子
丢下无边金黄 背回会乌云的孩子
远处的天空宁静，灰蓝
乌云正滚过村庄
田野（二）
那优郁的孩子来到田野
他的单薄 他的破旧的衣衫
他十岁的年龄被麦芒穿透
他黑黑的脚丫 他踩着日光走过田野
从花开到花落 他踩着日光走过五月
他蓬垢的黑发被南风收割
五月过后 着块黄熟的田野将无人收割
五月过后 他十岁的黄熟将无人收割
五月的葬礼过后 他一生的黄熟无人收割
那肮脏的孩子来到田野
他的五月 他踩着日光从我身边走过
从花开到花落 他从我身边走过
他单薄的泪水淹死了五月
Field (I)
Nightfall at the field, dark clouds roll
Nightfall at the field black-feathered flocks take off
Three kids shouldering baskets hurry toward home
Three kids shouldering baskets hurry home in the wind
Some years ago they hurried home in the wind
Dark clouds rolled over the village
the back-then field
and the boundless golden ripening of May
Leaving the night’s storm to the golden field
leaving a lifetime of storms to it
those kids of years ago
shouldered dark clouds home
Nightfall at the field
I think of those three kids
who left the ripening behind shouldering dark clouds
The sky in the distance is calm, ash-blue
dark clouds having just rolled past
Field (II)
The melancholy child comes to the field
his thin his threadbare shirt
his tenth year punctured by spikelets of wheat
his grimy feet stepping on sunlight, he walks through the field
from bloom to wilt stepping on sunlight, he walks through May
the south wind harvesting his tangle of dirty black hair
After May this plot of ripened wheat will go unharvested
After May the ripening of his tenth year will go unharvested
After May’s funeral his entire life will go unharvested
The filthy child comes to the field
all of May stepping on sunlight, he walks past me
from bloom to wilt he walks past
His thin tears drown May to death
“田野（一）” and “田野（二）” from 杜涯诗选. 广州: 花城出版社, 2008.
Image by Yasuke Nagaoka.
Du Ya was born in 1968 in Henan Province. Before becoming an editor and writer, she worked as a nurse for ten years. She is the author of The Wind Uses Its Bright Wings (1998), Selected Poems (2008), and Sunset and Dawn Light (2016), winner of the prestigious Lu Xun Prize.
Anni Liu is a writer, translator, and editor with work published or forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, Georgia Review, The Journal, Pleiades, The Margins, and elsewhere. You can find her other translations of Du Ya in Waxwing and the Asymptote blog. Her work as been supported by an ALTA Travel Fellowship, the inaugural Undocupoets Fellowship, and a residency at the Anderson Center. She holds an MFA from Indiana University and works at Graywolf Press.
