translated by Xela H.
Giving Birth to Poems
She read poem after poem at night, feeling her lust and orgasms between the lines. When she woke up the next day, she found herself pregnant. She wanted to make sure which poem she read last night had caused her pregnancy.
Last night, she had read poems by Márquez, Bolaño, and Borges. She investigated one by one, finally found that the baby was fathered by a poem written in horizontal form by Borges that disguised as a novel.
She had read last night the Borges in his youth, in his middle age, and in his old age, and she wanted to make sure that it was the life force and philosophy of which period that had impregnated her.
She loved the Borges in his old age, so she aborted all the fetuses that came from other periods of Borges. And in the nights followed, she repeatedly read the old Borges, hoping that he would impregnate her again. Yet in his poems, drawing on the vitality and sexual functions of the old age, she who entered a state of arousal, could never reach an orgasm.
Trying to help the old Borges regain his fertility, she started to rewrite the old Borges’ poems, adding her own desires and life into them.
When the poems were completed, she found that her womb was gone. A child behind her was grabbing the hem of her garment.
Pregnancy and giving birth, if the essence is creation, can be accomplished without a womb.
Grandfather’s Clock
She had a dream, in which she and her grandfather were standing on a clock, and he was holding her in his arms. The second hand rotated against the clock face, and with each revolution, a part of her grandfather was cut off from his feet. Grandfather got cut shorter and shorter, gradually only the hands holding her were left, high in the air. The moment before grandfather’s hands were cut off by the second hand, he placed her on top of the second hand. She lived on forever since then holding the second hand.
A poetry and creative hybrid text collection by several contemporary Chinese authors will be published by Terror House Press and available in 2022.
About the Translator
Xela H. (西楠), also known as Xi Nan, writes and translates, indie publisher of Xi Nan & Fish Lu STUDIO, London. She was born in China and now lives in Europe. Her blog is here.
Hai Xin (海辛), an experimental filmmaker who left medical industry and became a proud artist, who supports her three cats by digital humans and virtual production. She is the creator of the following proud works: experimental film Abortion Mary, stage drama My Vagina is in the Color of My Belly, book Dreams in Pieces (實驗電影《Abortion Mary》、話劇《我的陰道是我肚皮的顏色》、書籍《夢境碎件》). As a child, she idolized Eiichiro Oda, but later found out that her soul mate was Tatsuki Fujimoto. Although her idols are both cartoonists, she does not draw cartoons.
