Canines Listen
poems by Elbert Lee
Issue 15, winter, 2024
Would You Listen
Listen
to my footsteps,
to the clinking
of my keychain…at the door.
Engine sounds of my car,
my breath—
as I blink my eyes—you want to listen.
Listen
to the wind—
pick up the sound of a feather as it falls.
You listen.
Listen
to the rhythm of my heartbeat—
its bass and treble
as they rhyme with yours.
Listen
to the real me—
only in the real you—to dream again…
poems, prayers, promises—
without
words, commas, parentheses.
Would you listen…?
Canines listen.
King Banyan Deer
The king has done this a thousand times before.
It was a good aim at the right distance.
He could end this game with one arrow.
Eye to eye.
Kingdom to kingdom.
The longest moment.
An arrow pointing at the king.
The king sees.
In the eyes of the deer.
The king.
Of deer.
He could end this game.
The retinue retreated.
The king has seen this a thousand times before.
It saw those who fell next to it before.
It could smell the speed of the arrow.
The Caves of Altamira
It does not matter now.
A long time ago,
in the caves of Altamira,
in a flash of fantasies of—
What looks like a bison
on the walls of Altamira—
I was.
Your god—
on the walls of Altamira.
In the caves of Altamira—
angels, demons, feasts, and the eternal hunt.
Embodied in me—
cosmic beauty and violence.
Ritual-prepare me—I am clean—then you are—
then, hallucinate ethics of slaughter—don’t laugh.
Your first otherness—
before your gods,
ancestors,
beyond your sacred and profane—
I was—not you.
See me, feel me, touch me—kill me.
I mirror—life, death, sacrifice.
Sniff me, taste me, consume me—miss me.
The land of the caves of Altamira,
you and I, and the pack of canines…
We roamed.
Our land.
A long time ago.
It does not matter now.
Translated into Chinese by Elbert Lee and Florence Ng:
你會聽嗎
聆聽
我的腳步，
叮叮噹噹的
鑰匙鏈聲……在門前。
我車子的引擎，
我的呼吸—
當我眨眼時—你也想聽。
聽
那風聲—
聽那羽毛掉下—無聲。
你傾聽。
聽
我心跳的韻律—
它的低音和高音
與你的心律和應。
聽
真正的我—
只有在真正的你—再夢……
詩歌、禱告、承諾—
忘了
詞語、逗號、括號。
你會聽嗎……？
犬類傾聽。
菩提鹿王
國王曾經幹過千百次。
距離正確，目標鮮明。
一箭可以結束這場遊戲。
眼對眼。
王國對王國。
最長的瞬間。
箭頭指向國王。
國王看見。
在鹿眼裡。
國王。
鹿的國王。
他知道如何結束這場遊戲。
隨從退去。
國王目睹過千百次。
牠見過倒在牠身邊的夥伴。
牠何嘗未嗅過疾速箭矢。
阿爾塔米拉的洞穴
如今都煙消雲散了。
很久以前，
在阿爾塔米拉的洞穴裡，
在一閃即逝的幻想中──
在阿爾塔米拉的牆上
看似像野牛的動物──
我在。
你的神──
在阿爾塔米拉的牆上。
在阿爾塔米拉的洞穴裡──
天使、惡靈、盛宴，以及永恒的狩獵。
我身彰顯──
宇宙的美與暴力。
把我預備成祭牲──我潔淨──然後你潔淨──
然後，品嘗一下屠殺倫理的幻覺──別笑。
你的非你，首位──
在你的諸神、
祖先之前，
超越你的神聖與褻瀆──
我──不是你。
看我，感受我，觸摸我──殺我。
我映照──生命、死亡、犠牲。
嗅我，嚐我，吞噬我──想念我。
阿爾塔米拉洞穴裡的土地，
你與我，以及那群犬類……
我們浪遊過。
我們的土地。
很久以前。
如今都煙消雲散了。
Elbert Siu Ping Lee
grew up in Hong Kong, where he currently lives. He has also spent some years studying and working in Canada and New Zealand.
He is the author of the poetry collection Rain on the Pacific Coast, published by Proverse Hong Kong, 2013.
Other poems of his have appeared in Quixotica–Poetry collection commemorating the 400th death anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Chameleon Press, 2016); Twin Cities (Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine, 2017); Desde Hong Kong: Poets in conversation with Octavio Paz (eds. German Munoz, Tammy Ho, & Juan Jose Morales, Chameleon Press, 2014); Fifty/Fifty: A New Anthology of Hong Kong Writing (ed. Xu Xi, Haven Books, 2008); Hong Kong Poems, an English-German Anthology (eds. L. Ho & K. Stierstorfer, Stauffenburg, Tübingen, 2007).
He was a member of the League of Canadian Poets (2017-2019).