ZHENG Xiaoqiong (PRC) was born in Nanchong, Sichuan. She went south to Guangdong for work in the year 2001. To date, she has published twelve books, including Notes of a Woman Worker, Rose Manor, Huang Maling, Poetry Collection by Zheng Xiaoqiong, Pure-Species Plant and Footbridge. Notes of a Woman Worker was hailed as “the first symphony-poem about the female gender, work and capitalism in the history of Chinese poetry”. Her works have been translated into various languages, such as Bahasa Indonesia, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Vietnamese. Her numerous accolades include Chuang Chong Wen Literature Awards, October Literature Awards and People’s Literature Awards. She was invited to recite poems in various cities in France at the 20th Le Printemps des Poetes, and to hold solo poetry recitals in Vienna and Graz upon the invitation of the University of Vienna and University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her poems have been adapted into songs and stage plays and performed in Germany and the United States.
Sounds
These sounds I hear, stiff, vertical,
like an enormous iron hammer on an anvil, clank, clank
these low sobs, sorrowful, bloated, oppressive
we walk, run
slowly, our captive fate!
The sounds I hear when I turn around are like pieces of cut iron
circular, square, in strips… iron I cannot speak of
it is silent as we sob, life’s iron hammer pounds
in the flames of the furnace or the light of daytime
I see myself looking like this cast iron
one little spot, another little spot, burnished, cut out, slowly
becoming a component without language, a tool, an apparatus
turning into this voiceless, this silent, this mute life!
(Translated by Eleanor Goodman)
鄭小瓊（中國），四川南充人，2001年南下廣東打工，迄今出版詩集《女工記》、《玫瑰莊園》、《黃麻嶺》、《鄭小瓊詩選》、《純種植物》、《人行天橋》等十二部，其中《女工記》被喻為「中國詩歌史上第一部關於女性、勞動與資本的交響詩」，有作品譯成印尼語、英語、法語、德語、日語、韓語、土耳其語及越南語等語種。曾獲莊重文文學獎、十月文學獎、人民文學獎等。曾應第二十屆法國「詩人之春」邀請往法國多個城市朗誦，應維也納大學、維也納藝術大學邀請，在維也納及格拉茨等城市舉辦其個人朗誦會，其詩歌在被多次被國外藝術家譜成不同形式的音樂、戲劇在美國、德國等國家上演。
聲音
這些我聽見的聲音，僵硬，垂直，
像巨大的鐵錘落在鐵砧板，「咚、咚」
這些低聲的啜泣，悲傷，臃腫，沉悶
啊，我們走著，奔跑著
緩慢地，不自由主的命運！
我轉身聽見的聲音，像一塊塊被切割的鐵
圓形、方形、條狀……我無法說的鐵
它們沉默，我們哭泣，生活的鐵錘敲著
在爐火的光焰與明亮的白晝間
我看見自己正像這些鑄鐵一樣
一小點，一小點的，被打磨，被裁剪，慢慢地
變成一塊無法言語的零件，工具，器械
變成這無聲的，沉默的，黯啞的生活！