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MAI
VAN PHAN
_______________________________
True
( translated by Xuan Oanh )
On
leaving
he wore
sweater of duck-neck color, large seat trousers
hair
crew cut
hand
holding a book
reaching
the door still mumbled:
light then
dark...stinking then fragrant...pump then deflate...walk then fall...slap
then pity...half-ripe then overripe...keep mum then scream...stuck up then
slacken...eat then caught in the throat...expose then cover...intimidate then
spare...give then fail to pay...shut up then uncover...missed it then
die...extort then find it...
bolt
wooden door
draw
iron door
he
pressed five safety locks
then
threw the key inside...
Turn
over the heap of blankets where he used to lie
a piece
of paper was seen scrawling
“Whoever finds me somewhere, call number...
Thanks and would reward”
after
the piece of paper still resounded :
stir it up then muddy it...humiliate
then lament...dissolved than drawn...unconscious then awake...request then
drop it...
The
Lesson
Arm and
elbow always rigid
From
wrist down fingers should be supple
Hand
stately perform in the bag
I
learned this lesson since childhood
(Once despised
like fermented rice
trodden
down the pavement by that stately one
Give it
up for the rest of my life !)
Stately
killing a mosquito
Stately
speaking in general terms
Stately
bowing empty
Stately
stealing raincoat
Stately
breathing smell into other’s mouth
Stately
protect a wrong decaying tooth
Stately
pissing at public spot
Stately
sniffing in handkerchief
Stately
readjusting cock in trouser pocket at meeting
Stately
blowing nose on glass window
Stately
squeezing money from a beggar
Stately
overhearing telephone
Stately
looking at sisters’ breasts in the funeral
Stately
signing name in a scientific work
Stately
writing love poem while being impotent
Stately
sending virus into other’s e-mail
Stately
changing fraudulent exam exercise
Stately
spending counterfeit money
......
Arm and
elbow always rigid
From
wrist down fingers should be supple.
Just a dream
They muzzled
plundered everything
and asked me for the sexual
organ
Asking for
but if I disagreed
that precious thing would be thrown
into latrine
(they knew both the secret and
incantations)
I said :
You can take all
but let me keep a little private
would voluntarily be a toy,
clout, dog servant ...
I stooped to receive yoke on the
shoulders
I fluffed my hair out and began
to bark loud
I swung and screeched beep beep
I ground my body on the floor.
I ran around and my mouth
foaming
I sweated, shammed death,
fluttered
I crumbled, stampeded, broke
into pieces
I soaked and squeezed...
Always keeping cool
to see
visitor off at gateway
The teapot already made
turned round
the visitor was no longer there
Called on the telephone
House people said he died seven
years ago
Mistake (!)
One’s own house
everything upset
Couldn’t remember when the
portrait was put down...
Where was it the spring-operated
clock?
The sham-antique tea set given
by someone?
Dropped by the neighborhood
trying to ask a few kinds of
foodstuff
kind of increased price
kind still of old price
In the house
The tea remained warm
Pushed the cup towards where the
visitor sat.
The 1m60 high current of death
coldness standing in face
now and then stooped.
Him
I
Where
darkness devoured darkness
he sat
mumbling...
....continued whispering
of
unmade darkness
of darkness gradually swallowing
darkness
of blackness that couldn’t be
blacker
He was where the perfection of:
broken mirror whole again / born
insect / lost virginity / snapped
cable / unclogged sewer...
was a dump of rags / glass
pieces / sanitary towel / outmoded footwear...
was a bullet touching target /
resuscitating menstruations / stream running into the sea...
Creeping up a high tree
he called aloud:
Hey, shed the light in here!
By glimmering flash-light
everyone saw him open wide arms
and hovered like angel.
II
He laughed
and waved fist through a hole dug on a piece
of board. Bony fingers curled up
into iron fist to plunge thru the center without any obstacle. He thought,
hand seeking the delight of a dog gliding through a big wall. The gap was too
small between the board raised for the other hand to get through. Thirst for
breath.
Every time plunging thru the
hole mouth, his hand again open wide. The board was like a swimming
jelly-fish caught into a bunch of hooks. Turning the board he sang: blue sky hey ho ... here the large chest
vault...
Other side of the board was
another world. Signboard, old teacher, expertise minutes, market, commemorative
badge, sewer cleaner, fellow-countrymen society, monk, bathing oil, mouse
trap, the prophet...and fashion was also different (that’s what he thought!)
No wonder he didn’t plunge the other arm (!) He threw the board into litter
box, stood firm, repeatedly boxed the conventional hole, plunged at a quick
speed.
A forecast of sport future. With
solemn title on evening paper, his name appeared in the list of champions.
MAI VAN PHAN
Mai Van Phan’s Bio
· THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467),
the magazine of Literature & Literature-in-translation.
VOLUME
6 ISSUE 2 JULY
2004
Editorial note: All works published in this issue are
simultaneously published in the printed Wordbridge magazine double issue 3
&4 Winter 2003 & Spring 2004. (ISSN: 1540-1723).
Copyright © Mai Van Phan & The Writers Post
1999-2004. Nothing in this issue may be downloaded, distributed, or
reproduced without the permission of the author/ translator/ artist/ The
Writers Post/ and Wordbridge magazine. Creating links to place The Writers
Post or any of its pages within other framesets or in other documents is
copyright violation, and is not permitted.
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