Writing poetry is the process of my death and my resurrection. Writing poetry is like I travel from the earth to the moon, and from the moon to the constellation Ursa Major…Writing poetry is like I walk toward my end and my beginning. I obtain peace and tranquility like the sea and moonlight after expressing my passion and inspiration.
写诗是我死亡与复活的过程。写诗，如同从地球旅行到月球，从月球旅行到大熊星座。写诗，如同走向我的结束与开始。当我抒发完自己的激情与灵感，便获得像大海和月光般的祥和与安宁。
Originally
Your love has gone for a walk since the afternoon.
My body becomes silent,
As if my words have gotten stale.
How long can I keep my love for you,
I stand here until the field runs out of all the birdsong.
Your love will return home.
My body shines again after being silent，
And my words flow to another city.
I say to you: I love you,
The period of validity is like the days of the forests on earth.
A bird opens itself, but also opens the silence of the field.
原来
你的爱在傍晚去散步了。
我的肉身变得沉默，
如同用旧的语言。
我对你的爱还能保留多久，
我站在这里，原野用光了所有的鸟鸣。
你的爱还会重返家园。
我的肉身沉默之后，重新闪烁，
而我的语言流动到另一座城市。
我对你说，我爱你，
有效期如同森林在地球的日子。
鸟儿打开了自己，却也打开了原野的寂静。
You Taught Me This Kind of life
Talk with the third person about what we also talked about,
Arouse my fantasies about you.
Your nails or even suitcase
What texture of shirts and sadness are filled in.
Your name is a contract.
Speaking of you——this virgin territory,
I sweep away the treasure map like a thief.
I went to the restaurants and bookstores you had been to.
I Collected your life like a museum.
And you, the generous artist
You exhibited to me：despair is a piece of paper，
Paint flying birds, paint blue grass.
You taught me this kind of life.
Fantasy I were a bird
My steps moved backward, there would be a high cliff behind me.
The memory with you
Like a river flowing between our hands.
你教会我这种生活
与第三个人谈起我们曾谈过的，
引起我对你的幻想。
你的指甲甚至行李箱
装满什么质地的衬衫与哀伤。
你的名字是契约。
谈到你——这份处女地，
我像小偷卷走藏宝图。
我去过你前往的餐馆，书店
如博物馆收藏你的生活。
而你，慷慨的艺术家
还向我展览：绝望是张纸，
画上飞鸟，画上蓝色草地。
你教会我这种生活。
幻想我是鸟
脚步后移，身后高崖。
与你的记忆
如河流从我们双手间流淌。
Spring Scenery
You make my blood obtain flow，
You make my time begin to die.
You make me know a second is
Finite and endless.
Everything is you,
There couldn’t be any more of you.
I want to die in every second of the sea，
The tide surges over every inch of our skin.
Every inch of our skin longs for death，
Land is salvation，while we are drowning.
Waves carry plague.
春色
你让我的血液拥有涌动。
你让我的时间开始死亡。
你让我知道一分一秒是
有限，无穷。
世界都是你，
不允许多出更多的你。
想死在大海的每秒里，
潮水涌动在每寸肌肤上。
每寸肌肤都渴望死，
陆地是救赎，我们在溺水。
浪花携带着瘟疫。
Incheon Port
Before we left, we took one last look at blue.
Blue as my parting words.
Before we left, we took one last look at blue.
Sea, your traveler is leaving.
Before we left, we took one last look at blue.
It dyed my homecoming shirt blue.
“What is the name of this sea?”
“Or, let’s call it the Incheon Port.”
Before we left, we took one last look at blue.
Incheon Port. If you don’t like the name,
I will call you, lover’s gaze.
仁川港
在我们离开前，我们最后看望了一眼蓝色。
蓝得如同我的离别赠言。
在我们离开前，我们最后看望了一眼蓝色。
海水，你的旅人就要走了。
在我们离开前，我们最后看望了一眼蓝色。
它把我回家的衬衫染蓝了。
“这片海叫什么名字？”
“或者，我们把它叫做仁川港吧。”
在我们离开前，我们最后看望了一眼蓝色。
仁川港，你若不满意这个名字，
我叫你，恋人的眼神。
Brightening
They put a carrot nose
Two brooms
On my silence.
They laughed beside my window,
Tore my silence
Into small snowballs.
They had a snowball fight, my silence
Was thrown into the air,
Was trampled under their soles.
They had loved me, touched me, kissed me,
And they left, the snowball rolled to the withered grass.
Many afternoons,
Only snow and me,
Brighten each other.
照亮
他们给我的寂静
安上红萝卜鼻子
两只扫帚
他们在我窗前欢笑
把我的寂静
撕成小小的雪球
他们打雪仗，我的寂静
抛在半空里
踩在靴子底
他们爱过我，抚摸过我，亲吻过我
他们走了，雪球滚到枯草旁
许多傍晚
唯有我与雪
相互照亮
Antiquity
We are cut off by language and daily life,
Abandoned by the sky on the earth together.
Our love is handcuffs,
We share each one
And be a pair.
The bird is about to soar and to sacrifice.
You beyond
Our common and only existence.
The moment the bird is decapitated and released,
I close my eyes, god is crying.
We wander around the planet,
The bird distinguishes us.
God’s tears welled up.
This is an old clock. You and I are second hands.
Second by second. If you start crying now,
It’s just tears falling too soon.
古老
我们被语言和日常斩断,
共同被天空抛弃在大地上。
我们的爱是镣铐，
我们分享各自的一只
成为一双。
这只鸟即将凌空献祭。
你轻轻越过
我们共同唯一的存在。
鸟被斩首释放的那刻，
我闭上眼睛，神在哭泣。
我们在星球里流浪，
这只鸟使我们相辨。
神的眼泪涌动出来，
这是古老的时钟，我和你是秒针。
一秒接着一秒。你若此刻开始哭泣，
这只是眼泪过早降临。
Note on Translations: All poems translated by Cai Yingming
off the margins contributors are asked to respond questions that will be asked of all featured writers to further articulate a collective response to the question: How do we step off the margins of convention and enter the wild terrain of our writing?
off the margins 网站要求每位特约作者回答这一面向集体的问题，以进一步阐明对该问题的集体回应：我们如何走出常规的边缘，进入写作的狂野地带?
Firstly, Language has boundaries, which are expanded by real poets. Step off the margins of convention, that is to say, step off the boundaries of language. Enter the wild terrain of writing, that is to say, expand the boundaries of language. Wittgenstein believed that the boundary of language is the boundary of the world. The world beyond boundary is unknowable and unspeakable. And I believe that the mission of poets is trying their best to extend the boundaries that beyond the boundaries of language, to reach the world that beyond the world, to approach those “unknowable and unspeakable”.
If poets try to break the boundaries of language, they must struggle with language. Theodor W. Adorno said: “To write a poem even after Auschwitz is barbaric.” Auschwitz, as a mark of historical events, is over, but “Auschwitz of language” is always there. Poets are forever in the Auschwitz camp of language, struggling fiercely with language. Step off the margins of convention, that is to say, give up our daily polluted and damaged language. The language of poetry should keep a distance from the daily language. Poets must create their own language, make unconventional use of language, distort words with violence and trigger special feelings. As Cleanth Brooks argues, poetry comes from this disharmony and inconsistency, that is, paradox—— The reason why the poet adopts this difficult way of discourse is that the poet has no other choice. The poet must fight with the language to the death.
Our language is invisibly destroyed, damaged, polluted and devalued in our daily life. The mission of poets is to preserve the purity of language. Let language restore its self-activity and vitality. Literary critic George Steiner analyzed that the German language was beautiful before Hitler, while it was damaged after Hitler. The soldiers went to battle and also took German language away. Restoring language means not using language to lie, not using words that we have lost our sense. Let writing return to pure language.
The proposition of “Stepping off the margins of convention and entering the wild terrain of our writing” also needs to involve the inheritance and development of literature. We have to love our father and then kill our father like Oedipus. We have to be influenced deeply by literature tradition, and then get rid of “the anxiety of influence”. Sappho, Dante, the Book of Songs, Chu Ci, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Whitman, Eliot, Pound, Frost, etc…these literature heritages are our shared traditions. The more national, the more international; the more international, the more it will be absorbed by the languages of all nations. The literature classics of different nationalities fuse with each other and naturally produce chemical reactions, which is beneficial for individuals to enter the wild terrain of writing. In addition, Throughout the ancient Chinese literature, Tang Poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing dramas, the literary peak of each dynasty in China is different genres and forms. However, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Qu, Ming and Qing dramas are actually variants of China’s oldest poetry. This also proves that only by entering the tradition can we shake off the tradition.
Literature itself is a way of constructing and imagining the world, but literature is also constructed to some extent. According to Simone de Beauvoir, “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” We can say that literature is not born as “Literature”, but gradually becomes “Literature”. In terms of the external research of literature, cultural researchers put literature in a broader cultural context, such as the cultural phenomenon of poetry crossover, poetry crossover music, poetry crossover dance, poetry crossover technology, poetry crossover sociology and so on. Literature is placed in a vast space, intersecting and integrating with various cultural elements. On the other hand, for we writers, in addition to some visible forms of literary text, there are also some invisible forms of non-literary text that influence us when we write. Intertextuality includes between literary texts and literary texts, as well as between literary texts and non-literary texts. That is to say,– the scene of writing itself is always open, trans-boundary, free and wild.
Returning to the fundamental position of pure language, poetry is dancing with shackles, and poetry is the language standing on the cliff. The poet is bound to expand the boundary of language. The poet must fight with language to the death, so as to enter the wild terrain of writing. However, for me, writing is my unfinished life, and a Jerusalem beyond my reach in life.
蔡英明：首先，语言是有边界的，语言的边界是通过真正的诗人来拓展的。走出常规的边缘，即走出语言的边界。进入写作的狂野地带，即扩展语言的边界。维特根斯坦认为，语言的边界就是世界的边界。世界之外不可知，不可说。我相信诗人，就是要竭尽所能地去扩展语言边界之外的边界，抵达世界之外的世界，去接近那些“不可知，不可说”。
诗人试图打破语言的边界，就必须与语言进行搏斗。阿多诺说：“奥斯维辛之后，写诗是野蛮的。”作为历史标记的奥斯维辛结束了，然而“语言的奥斯维辛”永在。诗人永远都在语言的奥斯维辛营中，与语言进行激烈的斗争。走出常规的边缘，即我们放弃日常受到损坏的语言。诗歌的语言与日常的语言应该保持距离。诗人必须创造自己的语言，对语言进行反常规的使用，用暴力扭曲字词，引发特殊的感受。正如布鲁克斯所认为，诗意正是从这种不协调和不一致，即悖论中产生出来。——诗人采取这种吃力的话语方式是因为诗人别无选择，诗人必须与语言进行殊死的搏斗。
我们的语言在日常生活中无形当中受到破坏，损毁，污染与贬值。诗人的使命是，保持语言的纯粹性。让语言恢复到它自我的活性与生命力。文艺批评家乔治·斯坦纳分析认为，德语在希特勒之前是非常漂亮的，而在希特勒之后，德语受到了损坏。士兵们上战场的的同时也把德语带走了。恢复语言，就是不要用语言去撒谎，不要使用已经失去感觉的词语，让诗歌回归到纯语言。
打破写作的常规，进入狂野的写作地带，这一命题还需要涉及到文学的继承与发展。我们要热爱父亲，然后如俄狄浦斯般“弑父”，我们要受到文学传统的影响，然后摆脱“影响的焦虑”。萨福但丁，诗经楚辞唐诗宋词，惠特曼艾略特庞德弗罗斯特等，这些文学遗产都是我们共同的传统。越是民族的文学，就越是世界的文学；越是世界的文学，就越要被我们吸收到本民族的语言当中。不同民族的文学经典互相融合，自然产生化学反应，这对于个人进入写作的狂野地带是有利的。此外，纵观中国古代文学，唐诗宋词元曲明清戏剧，中国历朝历代的文学顶峰是不同的体裁，然而唐诗宋词元曲明清戏剧实际上都是对中国最古老的诗歌所产生的变式。这也验证了，——只有进入传统，才能摆脱传统。
文学本身是建构与想象世界的一种方式，而某种程度上文学也是被建构出来的。采用波伏娃的话，女人不是天生成为女人的，而是逐渐成为女人的。我们或许可以说，文学不是天生而为“文学”的，文学是逐渐成为“文学”的。从文学的外部来说，文化研究者把文学置于更广阔的文化语境中，比如诗歌跨界这一文化现象，诗歌跨界音乐，诗歌跨界舞蹈，诗歌跨界科技，诗歌跨界社会学等等。文学被置于广阔的空间中，与各种文化元素交叉、综合。而另一方面，对于写作者自身而言，我们在写作的时候，除了会有一些可见的文学文本形式，同时还有一些看不见的非文学文本形式在对我们展开影响。互文性是包括文学文本与文学文本之间，文学文本与非文学文本之间。也就是说，——写作现场本身便是敞开的，跨界的，自由狂野的。
最后回归到纯语言的根本立场上，诗歌是戴着镣铐舞蹈，诗歌是站在悬崖上的语言。诗人势必拓展语言的边界，诗人必须与语言进行殊死的搏斗，由此而进入写作的狂野地带。然而，对于我来说，写作是我未竟的生命，我终极一生也无法企及的耶路撒冷。
Who are the women writers who have influenced your own work?
问：哪些女作家影响了您的作品？
This question makes me think of Literature mother and moonlight.
Literature mother is only. Literature mother is a writer among all women writers, a source of all light, and a great force that calls me. So far, I don’t know who my literature mother is, but I think she is a mysterious energy rather than a specific person. And those women writers who influenced my work are the light emitted from the literature mother. Their works are mirrors, and I can see myself in front of these mirrors; their works are coordinates that allows me to know about writing in the past and a certain direction of writing in the future.
When it comes to the specific women writers who have influenced my work, the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva has influenced me. Tsvetaeva loves everything in life when she is in farewell, not when she is in an encounter; she prefers death rather than life, which has greatly influenced my aesthetic thoughts. Tsvetaeva combines extreme passion with despair and paranoia. There is a strong explosive and destructive power in her work. She is the voice of god, and is always fixed in the strongest voice. She has been waiting for the point of the knife for too long! She sanctifies everything in the world, but what is truly sacred is not everything but her soul and emotion. She has always maintained a noble heart in her miserable life, like an indomitable and smooth pebble in the heavy spoondrift of history. There is an indestructible power in her words or rather in her personality, which is like a giant magnet and I was firmly attracted.
Provide that Tsvetaeva is a sea with rising tides to me, then Emily Dickinson is a sea with falling tides to me. After the ebb tide, the world obtains a kind of eternal and tremendous tranquility, as if the end of life. “Had I not seen the sun, I could have borne the shade. But light a newer wilderness, my wilderness has made.” This is incomparable wildness. This is the greatest desolation in the world. Her sea is endless, deep and fascinating, shining with quiet and passionate light. A tranquil passion is a kind of passion to attain eternity, and ebb tides also contain a rising power. Her words exist like time on the earth. Although she was unmarried and childless all her life, her motherhood has been reflected and shining in her words. If Tsvetaeva tears me apart, then Emily Dickinson restores me. They are the dazzling sun and the serene moonlight, the sea with rising tides and the sea falling tides respectively.
I’ve been reading American poetess Sharon Olds recently. Many of her works reflect unique and delicate innermost feelings of women, which deeply moved me. Her precise control of text details is like setting off a human electric shock test through a human cell. She is honest to herself and to life, and also presents this honesty to her readers. This honesty sublimates into a kind of loyalty. Loyal to the women’s distinctive sensibility of life, loyal to words and to the world. She writes with noble and glorious humanity.
Other women writers who have influenced me include ancient Chinese poetess Li Qingzhao, Chinese novelist Eileen Chang, Polish poetess Wislawa Szymborska, Japanese poetess Kaneko Misuzu, and Swedish poetess Edith Sodergran,etc. My understandings and feelings to the women writers are based on my limited reading experience in my young life. Looking for women writers who have an influence on me is like looking for the light emanating from literature mother, and I will keep looking for them until I die. Perhaps, this literature mother is time, or the universe that we exist.
蔡英明：这个问题让我想到了月光与文学母亲。
文学母亲是唯一的，文学母亲是所有女作家中的作家，她是所有光芒的源头,她是一种召唤我的伟大力量。迄今为止，我还不知道我的文学母亲是谁，但我觉得她是一股神秘的能量，而不是一个具体的人。而那些影响我作品的女作家们，是文学母亲身上散发出来的光芒。她们的作品是镜子，我在这些镜子面前能够看见我自己；她们的作品是坐标，让我能够了解过去的写作以及未来的某种写作方向。
谈及对我的作品产生影响的具体的女作家时，俄罗斯女诗人茨维塔耶娃影响了我。茨维塔耶娃曾经写过,我对生活中的一切都是在诀别时才喜爱，而不是与之相逢时；我都是偏爱死，而不是生。这种思想很大程度上影响了我的美学倾向。茨维塔耶娃融合了极致的热烈激情与绝望偏执，她的作品中有一种强大的爆发力与摧毁力，她是神的声音永远定格在最强音。“她等待刀尖已经太久！”她把世间万物都神圣化崇高化，而真正神圣的不是万物，是她的灵魂与感受。她在苦难的一生中始终保持着高贵的心，在沉重的历史浪淘中像一颗不屈不饶而又光滑的小石子。她的文字与她的人格中有一股坚不可摧的强大力量，如同巨大的磁铁，而我被牢固地吸引住了。
如果说茨维塔耶娃于我而言是涨潮的大海，那么艾米丽•狄金森对我来说就是落潮的大海。落潮以后，世界获得一种永恒与巨大的沉静，仿佛生命的尽头。“我本可以忍受黑暗，如果我不曾见过太阳/然而阳光已使我的荒凉，成为更新的荒凉”这是无与伦比的荒凉，这是世界最大的荒凉。她的这片大海，无穷无尽，深邃迷人，闪烁宁静而又激情的光辉。宁静的激情是一种获得永恒的激情，落潮当中又蕴含着崛起的力量。她的文字如同时间一样存在于地球。尽管她一生未婚未育，但她的母性已在文字得到体现与闪耀。如果说茨维塔耶娃是撕裂我，那么艾米丽•狄金森就是修复我。她们分别是热烈刺眼的太阳与深邃宁静的月光，涨潮的大海与落潮的大海。
最近我在阅读美国女诗人莎朗•奥兹的作品。她的作品很多反映女性独特细腻的内心深处的情感，读起来令我深受感动。她对文字细节的把控精准到位，如同一个人体细胞，便掀起了一场人体电击试验。她对内心与生命保持诚实，并把这种诚实呈现给读者。这种诚实上升到一种忠诚，对女性特有的生命感受力的忠诚，对诗歌与世界的忠诚。她的写作怀着崇高，光辉的人性。
影响我的女作家还有中国古代的女诗人李清照、中国的小说家张爱玲、波兰女诗人辛波斯卡、日本女诗人金子美铃，芬兰女诗人索德格朗等。对这些女作家的了解与感受是基于是我在年轻的二十岁生命中有限的阅读所做出的。寻找对于自己有影响的女作家，如同寻找自己的文学母亲所散发的光芒，我会用毕生去寻求她们。或许，这位文学母亲，会是时间本身吧。又或许，她会是我们存在的这个宇宙本身。
What would you like people to know about what inspires your poetry?
问：您希望人们了解是什么启发了您的诗歌?
When I write poetry, I often feel that I have experienced tsunamis and earthquakes in my mind. My fingers tap the keyboard like waves rolling, and every wave is about to swallow me. When I write poetry, I often feel like I’m a nuclear power plant, and the sparks of inspiration spurt out from my brain. When I write poetry, I am self-destructive and self-igniting. I am igniting my endless passion and outpouring inspiration. This process approaches death. The process brought me back to the moment when I was born from my mother, sweet and cruel, painful and happy.
Writing poetry is the process of my death and my resurrection. Writing poetry is like I travel from the earth to the moon, and from the moon to the constellation Ursa Major. I am led to a distant and unknown place in the depths of the universe. Writing poetry is like I walk toward my end and my beginning. I obtain peace and tranquility like the sea and moonlight after expressing my passion and inspiration.
Then, what inspires my writing? What is the Muse of my poetry?
I often say — it is not the Muse to come to me but I come to the Muse. It is not me to find poetry but poetry finds me. Poetry and me choose each other and we are fated. Poetry is my savior and slave owner, my nuclear power plant and tsunami, my death and my love, my pain and my happiness. Writing poetry is bound up with my destiny. Or, poetry transcends my destiny, transcends my physical body and transcends my language.
When I meditate quietly, my mind enters a sea. Thoughts and inspirations pour down naturally like moonlight, and words flap like waves and whirlpools. This is a revelation from nature. I’m listening to nature’s command to me. At this time, if I were a shrimp or a crab, I would be addicted to the sea. If I had been more intoxicated, I would have drowned in the sea, and given up the struggle.
When I write poetry, I create a illusion of life. I exist in the universe and time while my existence is also an illusion. My thoughts like leaves fall, fall, fall, cannot stop. Spring, summer, autumn and even winter, the vitality of the leaves still exists. The inspirations of my poetry writing is probably the same. As long as my physical body exists, inspirations flow to the root of my tree of life. Even if my body disappears, my inspirations also flow in time and space.
Writing poetry is something I have to do. If I don’t write it down, I will be swallowed up by the waves on me. If I don’t write it down, I will be burned by the flames on me. — I have to write it down–god orders me to write it down–I can’t stop it, nobody can. I am a labor of poetry forever. I submit to poetry meanwhile poetry is my proudest craft as a mortal.
I seek more profound meanings of life from poetry. I seek my existence in the universe and time from poetry. And where do I exist? An unknowable place. Just like poetry is unknowable. The essence of my relationship with poetry is the fundamental source that inspires my writing. Because poetry and I are destined, I was born for poetry. And as above-mentioned, poetry transcends my destiny, my physical body and my language. Where does my inspiration come from? Is it from the universe? Is it from nature? Is it from time? I think it comes from my being, and the connection of my being between the universe, nature and time.
Postscript: the above answer was originally written in the winter vacation at the turn of 2019 and 2020 when I was twenty years old. A writer said in his middle age “If just one word is maintained, I believe it is a technique of great rhythm. At the age of twenty, I can’t understand these with empathy. I purely believe that poetry is experience and strong emotions, etc. ”I do not intend to make an in-depth discussion on this issue here (what is the most essential thing of poetry) because of the limited space. But to express that, just like the mentioned writer, if I face this question again, “What inspires my poetry?” it is probably to be a calmer answer than when I was twenty years old. However, I decide to keep my original voice, which is also the voice I am grateful for–brave, naive, enthusiastic, passionate, perhaps fading — as some kind of record. Defamiliarisation not only occurs in literature language, but also in the relationship between people and themselves. Poetry is my nostalgia, and I am also my own nostalgia– Poetry is the homesickness of poets, and poets are also the homesickness of human beings.
蔡英明：当我写诗的时候，我常常觉得自己的脑海里经历了海啸与地震。我的手指在键盘上敲打，犹如浪花在翻滚，而每一朵浪花都即将把我吞噬；当我在写诗的时候，我常常觉得自己是一个核电站，灵感如同火花从我的大脑喷射出来。我写下诗句，我是在进行自我摧毁，我是在进行自我点燃，我在燃烧我源源不断的激情与灵感。这个过程逼近死亡，又仿佛让我重新回到从母亲身上分娩出来的时刻，亲切又残忍，痛苦又幸福。
我写诗的过程是我死亡与复活的过程。写诗，如同从地球旅行到月球，从月球旅行到大熊星座。我被引领到遥远的地方，宇宙深处不为人知的地方。写诗，如同走向我的结束与开始。当我抒发完自己的激情与灵感，我获得像大海和月光般的祥和与安宁。
那么，什么启发了我的写作呢？我诗歌的缪斯是什么？
我常常说——不是缪斯降临我，而是我宠幸了缪斯；不是我找到了诗歌，而是诗歌找到了我。我和诗歌是互相选择，写诗是命中注定。诗歌是我的救世主与奴隶主，诗歌是我的核电站与海啸，诗歌是我的死亡与热恋。诗与我的命运紧密结合，或者，诗歌超越了我的命运，超越了我的肉身，超越了我的语言。
我安静沉思时，脑海便进入一片大海，思绪与灵感如同月光一样自然而然地倾泻下来，文字如同浪花与漩涡在拍打。这是来自自然的启示，这是我在谛听大自然对我的命令。这时如果我是海边的一只小虾或者螃蟹，我会沉迷于这片大海；如果我更加陶醉，我可能会溺死在这片大海，并且放弃挣扎。
我在写诗时，是在制造生命的幻觉。我存在于宇宙与时间里，我本身就是一个幻觉。我的思绪如同落叶一样掉落，不能停止，即使在冬季，它的生命力依然存在，我写诗的灵感大抵也是如此,只要我的肉身的存在，灵感就流动到我生命之树的根部里。即使我的肉身消亡，我的灵感也同样在时空中流动。
写诗，是不得不写。如果不写下，我就会被我身上的浪花吞灭。如果不写下，我就会被我身上的火焰所烫伤。——是因为我不得不写下——是因为神命令我写下——我无法阻止，无人能够阻止。我永远是诗歌的劳役，我屈服于诗歌，而诗歌也是我作为一个凡人最骄傲的手艺活。
我从诗歌中寻求生命更深的意义，从诗歌中寻求我在宇宙与时间的存在。而我存在于哪里呢？不可知的地方。正如诗歌是不可知的。我与诗歌的关系本质，就是启发我创作的根本源头。因为我与诗歌命中注定，我为诗歌而生。而如同上述，诗歌超越了我的命运，超越了我的肉身，超越了我的语言。灵感与启发来自于哪呢？来自于宇宙吧？来自于自然吧？来自于时间吧？我认为，它来自于我的存在。以及我自身的存在与宇宙，自然，时间的联结。
后记：上述回答最早写于我二十岁时，2019年与2020年之交的寒假。一位作家在中年之时写道：“如果仅仅保持一个词，我相信，是伟大韵律的技巧。二十岁时，我并不能感同身受地理解这些，我单纯地相信诗是经验，强烈感情等。”由于篇幅有限在此我并不打算对该问题（何为诗歌最本质性的东西）进行深入探讨，而是想表达和那位作家一样，如果现在让我重新面对这个问题“什么启发了我的诗歌？”很可能会与自己二十岁时不一样，一种更为冷静的回答。然而，我决定保留当初自己的声音，同时也是我所感激的声音——勇敢的，天真的，热烈的，激情的，或许正在消逝的，作为某种记录。陌生化不仅仅发生在文学语言当中，同样也发生在人与自己的关系当中。诗歌是我的乡愁，我也是自己的乡愁——诗歌，是诗人的乡愁；而诗人，也是人类的乡愁。
Biography:
Cai Yingming (Pseudonym Sinan) is a poet from China. She was born in Fujian Province in 1999. She published her first book of poems Naming at 20 years old. Her poems have been published in national, provincial and municipal magazines, including Poetry Magazine, Stars, Flying sky, Grassland, Poetry Forest, Coconut City, Jiangnan Poetry, Prose Poetry, Quanzhou literature, Shan Dong literature, Yanhe Poetry, Taiwan Genesis, etc. Her poems have been translated into Japanese and English and published overseas, including Japan Gendaishi Techo (Journal of Contemporary Poetry) and Philippine World Daily, etc. Her poems have been selected in various writing anthologies, including 2018 Youth Poetry Yearbook, 2018 Annual Anthology of Chinese Poetry, 2019 list of Chinese New Poetry, 2020 Calendar of Chinese New Poetry, 2020 Selected Works of Chinese Young Poets, A Poem A Day Volume 2021, Penning The Pandemic (USA), and a dozen of other anthologies. She was awarded the Third Boao International Poetry Prize for Young Poet, the Outstanding Prize in the Seventh Handan National University Students’ Poetry Festival, the College Student Special Prize in the Second Dufu Chinese Poetry Competition ,etc. In November 2019, she visited the United States to participate Poetry Bridging Continents, an international symposium held at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire and the AMC Highland Center in Bretton Woods. In 2020, her first poetry collection Naming won a Hainan provincial literature award, the First Xiaojian Youth Literature Award which was awarded to outstanding Hainan writers born after 1975, she is currently the youngest writer among the winners. Email address: bonjourmiya@qq.com
蔡英明，笔名司南，诗人，1999年生于中国福建省。二十岁时出版首部诗集《命名》。诗歌散见各种杂志报刊，如《诗刊》《星星》《飞天》《草原》《诗林》《椰城》《诗江南》《散文诗》《泉州文学》《山东文学》《延河诗歌专号》台湾《创世纪》等。作品被翻译成日语、英语并刊登海外，如日本《现代诗手帖》，菲律宾《世界日报》等。作品被选入各种诗歌年度选本，如《青年诗歌年鉴2018年卷》《2018中国诗歌年选》《2019年中国新诗排行榜》《2020年中国新诗日历》《2020中国青年诗人作品选》《每日一诗2021年卷》《书写大流行疾病》（美国）等十余种。曾获得第七届中国•邯郸大学生诗歌节优秀奖、第三届博鳌国际诗歌奖年度新锐奖、第二届杜甫杯华语诗歌大赛大学生特别奖等。2019年11月访问美国参加新英格兰学院、布雷顿森林的AMC高地中心举行的“诗歌连接大陆”国际研讨会。2020年，她的首部诗集《命名》获得海南晓剑青年文学奖，该奖项颁发给出生于1975年之后的优秀海南省作家，她是首届获奖者中最年轻的一位。邮箱：bonjourmiya@qq.com
off the margins 