Thursday, December 15, 2016

Cui Yuwei #26 ben

ben

Written and self-translated into Chinese by Cui Yuwei

is not a name
but the pinyin of a Chinese word
many Chinese wear it on the tip of their tongue
referring to people as ben, like
neighbour’s son is ben because he can’t talk at 2
liberal art students are ben because they can’t work out math problems
or
when parents warn children of risk and danger
they’ll say, don’t be benjust listen to us
or they give a reprimand, you’ll hear
how on earth did I give birth to such a “ben” child like you
fortunately, mom has never said I’m ben even though
I’m a liberal art student and poor in math
she often relates it to food
every summer I fly home
she’ll stroll through the market, bringing back the products from the farmers
who go into town, sell things like ben vegetables, ben eggs, ben chicken and ducks
you need to eat them, mum says
they’re all natural, without any chemicals
to help grow…

《ben》

不是一個名字
它是個漢語拼音
許多中國人把它掛在嘴邊
說別人笨,比如
鄰居家的笨孩子,2歲了還不會說話
文科生很笨,都不會做數學題
或者
當他們警告孩子別去冒險時
他們會說:別那笨!得聽我們的
或者當他們責怪人時,你會聽到
我怎么生了個你這麼笨的孩子
幸好,媽媽從沒說過我笨
雖然我也是個文科生,數學很差
她常用笨這個詞指食物
每年夏天我飛回老家
媽媽都愛逛菜場,從偶爾進城賣菜的農民手裡
買回一些笨貨,像笨蔬菜,笨雞蛋,笨雞和笨鴨
你得吃這些笨菜,她說
都是純天然的,沒有任何
添加劑......



4 comments:

  1. what a lovely wry gentle humour informs this!

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    1. Yes, thank you,Efi. In Chinese, people use the same word ben--笨,to refer to a stupid person and organic food. But when we say ben vegetables or ben eggs, it seems more like a dialect, largely used by the northern people in China. :)

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  2. I love this, Cui Yuwei. It’s so rich in the linguistic play and funny too. I can’t judge how close to the original it is, but there’s a real delicacy in the translation.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much, Magdalena,:) In Chinese, ben, eg. 笨 have several senses. We can refer to a stupid person or organic food as a ben person or ben food. But when we say the latter one, it seems more like a dialect, largely used by the northern people in China.

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