From Ghosts City Sea by Wang Yin, translated by Andrea Lingenfelter

A Summer Day in the Company of Ghosts

a summer day in the company of ghosts
while sunlight bathes mournful colors
prophetic bicycles 
join ancestors sown in long-ago towns

too many heroes to count
they’ve crushed every scale
everyday events too painful to bear
callous rituals leave us numb

major rivers and minor seas
mingle like dreams
too many gods
have rendered the season a lie

a frenzy of waterlilies blooms at dawn
wooden oars soft as butterfly wings
a summer day in the company of ghosts|
my wildly beating heart fills with anguish

— January 1991

和幽灵在一起的夏日

和幽灵在一起的夏日
阳光沐浴着悲伤的色彩
预言的自行车
陪伴着先人种植已久的城镇

英雄极度过剩
度量破坏殆尽
日常事件痛苦不堪
礼仪麻木不仁

主要的河流和次要的海水
近乎梦幻般的交融
太多的神祇
已使季节几成谎言

疯狂的睡莲在黎明开放
木桨柔软如同蝶翅
和夏日在一起的幽灵
狂跳的心充满忧虑

1991.1