Writing Myth
If you could rewrite your love, would you?
This poem is the final track of All of Those Times, a Poetry x Music album released on Valentine’s Day last Saturday, now available on all streaming platforms (and Bandcamp, if you’re feeling generous and want to support us). There’s a Chinese version of the album as well, on YouTube and Bilibili.
The album tells the story of a relationship cycle and of fully lived lives, asking questions about who we are and the choices we make and the environments we interact with.
Writing Myth
In the mythology of us
we can rewrite our love.
On first sight, let’s say,
hearts racing, time stopped.
Our first kiss
a leap of trust,
butterflies in our guts.
Our quarrels resolved
with flowers and wine,
bloodless and sane.
Our nights lambent,
bodies twisted,
scars we can touch,
watchful stars above.
In the mythology of us
angels abide,
their envy as praise.
Look at us
through their eyes,
unhewn and ablaze.
Love is a crossing:
Let us take it
through rain and memory
to the boundary between night
and day. Let us compose
our love, our commitment
defiant like a moral, stone coiled
like scandent stems, like light
bottled in pearl.
We are the exception.
And when thunder strikes
or water swells the sky,
whether metaphor
for cataclysm or rapture,
we decide it together.
In the mythology of us
we are our own heroes
pumping fists, swilling
merry wine, our smile wide
as Bacchus’s butt.
But what if,
just if,
we were as Euripides
sitting in the shade of a laurel tree
and decided, after all,
this would be a tragedy?
A three-act play
where, after the kiss,
a chest pillows a head,
an apology.
~
~
书写神话
译：廖庆睿
Translated by Liao Qingrui
在我们的神话里
我们的爱情可以重写
眼神初会，这样说吧，
心跳加速，时间静止。
我们的初吻
是信任的飞跃，
万千蛱蝶 胸中翻飞。
我们的争吵 得以平息
借着鲜花与红酒，
毫无血腥 又理智。
我们的夜晚 摇曳闪烁
激情相拥
伤痕可以触碰,
群星在头顶注视。
在我们的神话里
天使们隐忍着,
祂们的嫉妒 有如颂歌。
透过祂们的眼睛
看看我们，
未经雕琢 又璀璨夺目
爱是一场远航:
让我们踏上旅程
穿过风雨与回忆
前往黑夜与白天的
分野。让我们谱写
我们的爱，我们的承诺
坚贞不驯 如同诫律难撼，古柱藤缠
依旧屹立不改，如同珍珠中
所凝结的光彩。
我们 就是那个完满的例外。
以及 何时鸣雷闪电
何时巨浪滔天
是昭示着
灭顶之灾 还是激情飞扬,
我们共同来决定。
在我们的神话里
我们自己便是英雄
舞动双拳，痛饮
欢宴美酒，大笑时的嘴
像酒神的尊臀那样宽。
但是万一,
只是万一,
我们像欧里庇得斯那样
坐在月桂的树阴下
然后决定，最终,
这要以悲剧作结呢?
一场三幕剧
初吻之后便上床，
醒来头枕着胸膛，
一声道歉就散场。