workerspoetry
The Square
This poem is an English translation selected from the second section, "The Square" (广场), of the Chinese poetry journal Workers' Poetry Selection (《打工诗选刊》).
Factory Notes
In this job of repairs,
I’ve memorized the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance.
Two colleagues share the repair bench with me —
Gong Meizhen and Wang Zili.
They had a child before officially registering their marriage.
Their love now
is like the data on the multimeter display —
often reading low.
Gong Meizhen says:
Traditional Chinese medicine speaks of observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking;
repair work is the same.
But life between two people is different.
Take these electronic components:
when current is constant,
and resistance is constant,
voltage must also be constant.
If voltage changes
while resistance stays the same,
current has to change too.
I tell her I have no experience with love myself,
but from a logical standpoint,
over ninety-nine percent of couples in this world
suffer more than they enjoy.
We come into this world naked and leave with nothing —
it’s always a solitary journey.
But the long stretch in between has to be lived by two,
having to find joy for oneself,
or for the other half —
that’s no easy thing.
We’re fated to spend our lives making mistakes.
Gong Meizhen stares blankly for a long while,
then finally speaks to me:
“You’re so young, yet so profound.
If I’d known, I wouldn’t have married.”
I sneak a glance at Wang Zili —
he nods firmly.
Wang Zili looks at Gong Meizhen
with a guilty expression,
then says to me:
“Eight years at this repair bench —
she was just a seventeen-year-old girl back then,
and now our child is in school.”
I shift my gaze to the amplifier’s display.
Suddenly, the workshop loses power —
all I hear is the workers’ simultaneous sigh: “Oh…”
Author: Sumer, male, Han ethnicity, born in 1979, native of Jiangxi, currently residing in Shenzhen. Works have appeared in Tianjin Poet, Xiannü Lake, and other publications.
《工厂小记》
在修理这个岗位上，
我记住了电流电压和电阻的关系。
修理台另两个同事，
龚梅珍和王自立。
他俩还没正式结婚登记就有了孩子。
他俩现在的爱情，
好像电流机显示的数据一样，
时常偏低。
龚梅珍说，
中医讲望闻问切，修理也一样。
两个人生活不一样。
像这电子产品，
电流一定，
电阻一定，
电压就一定。
电压变，
电阻不变，
电流也得变。
我同她说自己没有爱情体验，
从推理角度，
这世上百分之九十九以上夫妻，
痛苦多于快乐。
人赤条条来空空而去，
都是一个人的事。
中间漫长要两个人过，
要自己找快乐，
或为另一半快乐，
不是一件容易的事。
注定一生在错误中度过。
龚梅珍发呆半天，
然后才对我说话。
你年纪轻轻这么深刻。
早知道不结婚了。
我偷偷看了一眼王自立，
他很坚定地点点头。
王自立看了看龚梅珍，
很歉疚的样子。
然后对我说话。
修理台一坐八年，
当初她还是个十七岁小姑娘，
现在孩子都上学了。
我把视线转移到功放机显示屏上。
车间突然停电，
只听工人同时“哦……”一声。
苏美尔，一九七九生男，汉族，江西人暂居深圳，作品见《天津诗人》《仙女湖》等刊。