ZHOU Yunpeng (PRC), born in the city of Shenyang in Liaoning Province, is an independent folk singer and poet. At the age of nine, he has lost his eyesight to an eye disease and then studied at the school for the visually impaired. With perseverance, he graduated as a Chinese major from Changchun University in 1994. Afterwards, he was assigned to work at a factory and received social security payments. In 1995, he started busking in the Old Summer Palace in Beijing and then continued to write as he wandered the country. In 2007, he produced the album Children of China at his own expense, the music of which is beautifully melancholic and reminiscent of social reality. The album earned him the Best Folk Artist and the Best Lyricist at the 8th Chinese Music Media Awards. In 2011, his poetry collection The Love That Cannot Speak won the Poetry Prize at the People’s Literature Awards.
The Life of Water
Fierce whirlpool in an hourglass tempest crowning
Chills into cobblestone wrinkles moving is living
In rings of ripples spectral frustration beneath eight thousand yards of worry
Mermaid half dragon in moonlight bubbles sinking ships broken bank of fishing nets
Lighthouse seabirds iceberg white whale spouts a column of water campfires on a deserted island coral reef the bird-maiden Jingwei’s resentment Luo River goddess
Wailings out of a stalactite cavern the floods of 1938 crow picks up a stone Odyssey begins white snake floating on West Lake
Sirens sing of drowned men looking for a substitute aging Dragon King ancient kingdom beneath the Atlantic boiling marsh waterfall’s deluge useless semen of the poor
Xiang River goddess’s marriage bed Yuan Zhen’s green sea Wu Gorge maiden dawn in a dead fish’s eye First Emperor’s immortality-hungry eye sinking mountain of immortals
Lao Tzu’s goodness parted Red Sea Ark on Mount Ararat Bo Ya stopping a current Qutang Gu leaving lover for money
Li Bai scooping the moon’s reflection Heraclitus crossing the river wedding water turned to wine blood spattered over the gallows as many Buddhas as grains of sand in the Ganges
Styx behind the madman a girl’s tears on her first night Jordan River flowing over lambskin kidneys of Chinese people Xu You’s moist ears
Jonah meets God in the belly of a whale Oh the ocean’s waves are turgid Qu Yuan washes his feet Zhuang Zhou knows the happiness of fish
Xi Shi hangs up laundry in the south King Zhou sets up a cauldron of oil in the north Shelley’s soul overfills with seawater an IV bag holds the dregs of an unfresh age
2002, Beijing
(Translated by Canaan Morse)
周雲蓬（中國），出生於中國遼寧瀋陽，中國獨立民謠歌手、詩人。幼年因患眼疾而導致九歲時失明。後入盲人學校學習，個人努力至1994年長春大學中文專業畢業。大學畢業後分配至一家工廠領取保障金，1995年到北京圓明園開始了賣唱生涯，其後四處遊蕩並進行創作。2007年自費錄制唱片《中國孩子》，音樂風格優美傷感而反映社會現實，並一舉拿下第八屆華語音樂傳媒大獎最佳民謠藝人和最佳作詞人兩項大獎。2011年詩集《不會說話的愛情》獲人民文學獎詩歌獎。
水的一生
旋渦瘋狂的沙漏暴風雨臨盆
冷卻成鵝卵石的皺紋動就是生
一圈圈漾著焦慮八千英尺深處幽暗的苦悶
美人魚月光中的鮫人泡沫沉船破碎的漁網岸
燈塔海鳥冰山白鯨噴射的水柱荒島上的篝火珊瑚礁精衛的怨恨洛神
鐘乳石井中的哭喊一九三八年的洪水烏鴉銜起石頭奧德賽開始漂泊西湖里的白蛇
塞壬歌唱溺死者尋找替身衰老的龍王大西洋底的古國蒸騰的沼澤瀑布滂沱窮人多餘的精液
湘夫人的婚床元稹的滄海巫峽的神女死魚眼中的黎明始皇帝期盼永生的眼沉沒的仙山
老子的善被分開的紅海亞拉臘山上的方舟伯牙折斷流水瞿塘賈的輕薄
李白撈月赫拉克利特渡河婚禮上的水變成酒絞刑架上憤懣的血恆河沙般多的佛
瘋子身後的忘川初夜女子的淚羊皮紙上流過約旦河中國人的腎許由濕潤的耳朵
約拿在魚腹中遇見上帝滄浪之水濁兮屈原洗腳莊周知道魚的快樂
西施在越國曬衣服紂王在北方支起油鍋雪萊的靈魂盈滿海水吊瓶裏殘留著不新鮮的歲月
2002年1月寫於北京