Mo Xiaoxie's 'We Didn’t Owe Each Other Anything Anymore' - translated by Ouyang Yu

We Didn’t Owe Each Other Anything Anymore

                                                Written in Chinese by Mo Xiaoxie

                                                Translated into English by Ouyang Yu

A long time ago

When we quarreled there happened to be a power failure and a water failure

The gate not quite closed yet

And you hit my left face with your right hand

Questioning how I had got a fling with Chen Jie’an

And what sort of a fucking sissy Chen was

My ears were boxed

And a relationship, severed

We didn’t owe each other anything anymore

From that day on

I’d occasionally have irregular periods

And I’d taken much Woman Enhancement Grass

You thought I had gone with Chen

Or I had gone mad       or I had married someone else

When in fact I hadn’t              I hadn’t married anyone else

Nor had I gone with Chen

I refused to answer any of your calls

I didn’t stay in my original home

And I wouldn’t climb again onto your chuan (boat)

Yes, chuan, not chuang (bed)

I am still alive since

I disappeared as if I had evaporated

《两不相欠》

很久以前

吵架那天正赶上停水停电

大门还没有关严

你用右手打了我的左脸

质问我是怎么勾搭上了陈洁安

那个陈洁安是个什么狗娘娘腔

一个耳光

一刀两断

两不相欠

从那天以后

我偶尔会月经不调

吃了不少盒益母草

你以为我跟了陈洁安

或者疯了 或者嫁了

其实我没疯 没嫁

也没有跟陈洁安

不接你任何电话

不住在原来的家

不会再次爬上你那船

是船不是床

从此像蒸发一样失踪

一直活到了现在

（2002年）

[Mo Xiaoxie, a Chinese woman poet, was born in the 1980s, has her poetry widely published in China.]