by Yao Feng, translated from Chinese by Hans-Georg Moeller

The body, or the flesh,
a human organism constituted of cells, muscles, and bones.
Linguistically it has different names.
Sociologically it has different meanings.

The body is individual, but more so it is of a circus.
The body’s lion
Under the trainer’s leather whip
Must tame all its personal feelings and desires.
Under the staring eyes of the many
It must most obediently duck through the ring of fire
and walk on the balance beam.
Or let a monkey ride on it.
When it is starving it opens its big bloody mouth,
Yet the trainer’s head stuck into it, it must spit out.

The body is surely not to think but only to perceive.
The body holds on to more secrets than thought.
Truth takes on the shape of the body.
If the body were to speak out and reveal all truths,
If the sexual organs were to speak out and reveal all secrets,
It would be enough to change this world.
The body must obey many rules.
It must follow leaders of all ranks.
Constantly it receives and executes all kinds of orders:
Physical ones, ideological ones, political ones, ethical ones,
customary ones, legal ones, pathological ones …

The body is a substitute for the soul, the mind, and the emotions.
It suffers torment, pain, and destruction.
Again and again even revolutions and wars start from the body as well.
Scarred with bruises and bloodstained it is filled with sorrow, tears, and death,
And the happy times are always so short.
And this once the circus performance is over: When a body
Tightly embraces another body.

Translated by Hans-Georg Moeller

Yao Feng was born in Beijing in 1958. He studied Portuguese language and culture and received his master’s degree in Portuguese literature from the University of Macau. He then received his PhD in comparative literature and world literature from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. Yao Feng has authored many poetry collections in both Chinese and Portuguese and is a translator of Portuguese poetry into Chinese. In 2004, Feng won the Rougang Poetry Award, and in 2006, he was awarded the Ordem Militar de Santiago de Espada medal by the president of Portugal.