Spinach by Zang Di 臧棣

This beautiful spinach hasn’t once
hidden you in its green shirt.
You have never worn
any green shirts at all.
You avoid this kind of image –
yet I can clearly remember
your silent flesh resembled
a seed at its apex.
Why does spinach look
beautiful?  Why
do I know you will think
this question, but won’t ask it?
Washing spinach, I feel
its deep green quality
is like a child I had with the plant.
So spinach answers the question
of how we can see in our lives
angels that others say don’t exist.
The beauty of spinach is weak –
when we face the mere fifty square meters
of standard living space, this vivid spinach
is the weakest politics.  On the surface
a bit wild, difficult to clean –
its beauty one might say
is sustained by the power of little irritations.
Yet its nourishment determines
its value, not to the left nor to the right.


translated with Wang Ao
published on the Best American Poetry blog and in PN Review


菠菜
                        臧棣

美丽的菠菜不曾把你
藏在它们的绿衬衣里。
你甚至没有穿过
任何一种绿颜色的衬衣，
你回避了这样的形象；
而我能更清楚地记得
你沉默的肉体就像
一粒极端的种子。
为什么菠菜看起来
是美丽的？为什么
我知道你会想到
但不会提出这样的问题？
我冲洗菠菜时感到
它们碧绿的质量摸上去
就像是我和植物的孩子。
如此，菠菜回答了
我们怎样才能在我们的生活中
看见对他们来说
似乎并不存在的天使的问题。
菠菜的美丽是脆弱的
当我们面对一个只有五十平方米的
标准的空间时，鲜明的菠菜
是最脆弱的政治。表面上，
它们有些零乱，不易清理；
它们的美丽也可以说
是由繁琐的力量来维持的；
而它们的营养纠正了
它们的价格，不左也不右。