Wen Yiduo: End of Days (From Chinese)

End of Days

By Wén Yīduō

Translated by A.Z. Foreman 

     Dew sobs in the choked waterpipes' bamboo. 

Green plantain tongues lick at the window like a bone.

    As chalky white walls back away from me

The room is now too huge for me to fill alone.

     I light a firepit up in my heart's chamber.

Waiting for my guest from afar, I hush and brood

     feeding the flame with telltale turds of rats.*

A mottled scaly snakeskin is my kindlewood. 

     The cock crows hurry. Ash heaps in the pit. 

A cold dark wind glances my mouth in one soft blow

     and there's my visitor before my eyes.

I close my eyes at last to follow him and go.

*The original reads literally "spider silk/webs and rat turds", a play on 蛛絲鼠跡 "spider webs and rat traces" which carries the idiomatic meaning of "subtle clues". 

The Original:

末日

聞一多

露水在筧筒裏哽咽着，
芭蕉的綠舌頭舐着玻璃窗，
四圍的堊壁都往後退，
我一人填不滿偌大一間房。

我心房裏燒上一盆火，
靜候着一個遠道的客人來，
我用蛛絲鼠矢餵火盆，
我又用花蛇的麟甲代劈柴。

雞聲直催，盆裏一堆灰，
一股陰風偷來摸着我的口，
原來客人就在我眼前，
我眼皮一閉，就跟着客人走。