****

变脸

他照镜子时
忽然发现自己的脸
很像某个女人的脸
细看时
又像另一个女人的脸
数看之后
居然轮番换了好几个
女人脸
最后他怀疑
是不是面对面
做爱的缘故

(written on a hotel letterhead in hong kong on 18 april 2002; rediscovered and keyed in on 20 october 2002 in melbourne) [following is my translation in English]

Changing Faces

when he looks into the mirror
he suddenly discovers that his own face
looks very much like a woman’s face
on closer inspection
it looks like another woman’s face
after looking at it for several times
it changes into quite a few women’s faces
until he begins to suspect
whether this is because
he’s made love face to face

(translated in Melbourne on 20/10/2002)

****

you go fast
you end up dying fast

you go slow
you end up, dying anyway

(written on the back of a hotel letterhead on board the ferry boat from macao to hong kong on 18 april 2002, remembering from last night; rediscovered and keyed in on 20 october 2002 in melbourne)

****

“i thought he was quite brave”
he was saying

(we were talking about a chinese dissident having just delivered a speech)

“i thought it was quite a good investment
politicswise”, i was thinking

(written on the back of a hotel letterhead on board the ferry boat from macao to hong kong on 18 april 2002; rediscovered, revised and keyed in on 20 october 2002 in melbourne)

****

for a brief moment
i thought she was going
to suck me dry
instead
she opened my heart
had a look
+ said:
it’s very polluted

(written on a hotel letterhead in hong kong on 21 april 2002, in room 2012, the toilet of the Wesley hotel; rediscovered and keyed in on 20 october 2002 in melbourne)

****

in the lit. fest.

some writers act as if
i owe them something
i’ve never worked that one out
till now when i’m showering
that what i probably owe them is respect
but is it due yet?

(written on a hotel letterhead in hong kong on 21 april 2002, in room 2012, the toilet of the Wesley hotel; rediscovered and keyed in on 20 october 2002 in melbourne)

Ouyang Yu