Apr 3 / Jonell Galloway

Food Poetry: 张错: 茶的情诗 / Love Lyrics of Tea

Christina Daub, Dominic Cheung, food poetry, Karl Zhang, love lyrics, tea

by Dominic Cheung

Translated into English by Karl Zhang

张错: 茶的情诗

Love Lyrics of Tea

如果我是开水

If I were boiling water

你是茶叶

And you were tea leaves,

那么你的香郁

Then all your fragrance would depend

必须倚赖我的无味

Upon my lack of taste.

让你的干枯柔柔的

As your shriveling

在我里面展开，舒散；

Loosened within me and unfolded;

让我的浸润

My moisture and lubrication

舒展你的容颜。

Would smooth the wrinkles from your face.

我们必须热，甚至沸

We would need to be hot, even boiling

彼此才能相溶。

To dissolve inside each other.

我们必须隐藏

We would need to hide

在水里相觑，相缠

Face to face under water, twisting and twining

一盏茶功夫

In a moment of tea

我俩才决定成一种颜色。

Before we decided, which color to become.

无论你怎样浮沉

No matter how long you might float and swirl

把持不定

Unstable

你终将缓缓的

Eventually you would

(噢，轻轻的)

(Oh, gently)

落下，攒聚

Sink down

在我最深处。

To assemble in my depths.

那时候

In that moment

你最苦的一滴泪

Your bitterest teardrop

将是我最甘美的

Would become my sweetest

一口茶。

Mouthful of tea.

___________________

Dominic Cheung graduated from the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, then studied in the US, where he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1974. He is the author of many scholarly books and papers and, under the pseudonym of Chang T’so (Zhang Cuo) is a professional poet who has published more than 17 collections of poetry. He is currently Professor of East Asian Languages at the University of Southern California.

Karl Zhang studied German language and literature in Fudan University in Shanghai for seven years and then in Germany on a Friedrich Naumann Scholarship for three years. After receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1999 in the German Studies and Humanities Program, he came to George Mason University, where he has overseen the founding of its comprehensive Chinese program. He is currently Associate Professor of Chinese and Head of the Chinese Program in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, and Education Director of the Confucius Institute at George Mason University. Karl’s dissertation deals with the Chinese-German literary/cultural interactions. His research interests include cultural studies and comparative poetics. He has translated German poems into Chinese and also writes poems himself.

Poem contributed by our poetry editor, Christina Daub.

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