Felinity
Issue 2
Let's do a cat stretch, purr and savour these poems by Hung Hung.
〈貓的必要〉
牠不諳悲傷
對我的哭泣毫無知覺
因此我感到放心
牠總是在睡覺
對我的慌張全然無感
牠總是答非所問
對我的憤怒視而不見
因此我覺得釋然
牠貓的多麼美好
多麼像你
Felinity
He knows not sorrow,
unaware of my weeping.
That sets my mind at rest.
He sleeps all the time,
uninterested in my fluster.
He always misses the point,
overlooking my fury.
That puts me at ease.
So mogdamn wonderful!
So much like you.
translated by Florence Ng and Moo Moo
〈繁體的你〉
今年夏天決定不剃毛髮了
還是喜歡看你
在窗台邊蘸著晨光行草——
欹側、擒縱、疏密、高低
也許關乎審美
有形有靈
千年來你狐一般修煉成仙
卻被簡化畸形
一行走，就有部首沿途掉落
和自己面面相覷
「我將解放你」
不必修剪不必在意流行
今天我們寫詩吧
用你豐毛竪直的尾巴
將那些被挾持的字都找出
尤其幾個藏在愛
壓抑在慾
裡的，心
Traditional You
This summer I have decided that you should go untrimmed.
After all I love to watch you
dip in sunlight and write in cursive on windowsills----
to slant and leap, to go dense and sparse, high and low.
Perhaps it is all about aesthetics----
with form and soul.
For a thousand years you have practised and become immortal like a fairy fox
but got simplified to deformity.
Each step you take, part of your character sheds,
eyeing yourself, face to face.
‘I will liberate you.’
No need to trim or mind the trend.
Let’s write a poem today
with your fluffy upright tail.
Uncover the hijacked characters,
especially the 心
hidden in 愛
suppressed by 慾.
Note: 心 means heart, while 愛love and 慾desire.
translated by Florence Ng and Moo Moo
〈在城市遇見的動物四則〉
Four poems on meeting animals in the city
1.金魚
週日的通菜街
天橋上擠滿印尼姐姐
天橋下擠滿金魚。塑膠袋
包著，一天份的呼吸
1. Goldfish
Tung Choi Street on Sundays.
On the footbridges Indonesian maids cram;
below, goldfish jam. Plastic bags
bulging, with air enough for 1 day.
2.北極熊
我住在一顆玻璃球。透明的
墻和故鄉的冰一樣厚
有時候，幾個頑皮孩子拍打
會有白色的雪花飄落
2. Polar Bear
I live in a glass ball. Crystal-clear
wall as thick as the ice from homeland.
Sometimes, a few naughty kids pat it;
down come milky snowflakes.
3.流浪犬
女孩長大了。那隻遺失的狗
仍流浪，馬路邊山路旁
每一雙朝車窗飛撲而來
熱灼的火
3. Stray Dog
The girl has grown up. The lost dog
is still wandering, on the roadside near the hill.
Pair after pair pouncing onto her windshield
were flames, burning.
4.街貓
咔嚓，一枚門票截角
必須攤開無害的粉紅色肚皮
交出對稱的耳朵。在城市巷弄
成為一道和諧的景色
4. Street Cat
Ka-cha, clicking a ticket truncated.
A harmless pinkish belly is bound to unfurl,
surrendering the symmetrical ears. In a city alley
dawns a dolce view.
translated by Polly Ho and Moo Moo
紅紅
出生於詩國度海角南方。非詩不可，貓的必要。詩作散見於《香港聲韻詩刊》、《字花》、《圓桌詩刊》，以及《野薑花詩集季刊》、《吹鼓吹詩論壇》、《台客詩刊》等。
Hung Hung
Born at the south cape of the country of poetry. Poetry only. Cat-centric. Her poems appeared in Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine, Fleurs des lettres, The Roundtable, Ginger Lily Poetry , Taiwan Poetry, Taike Poetry, etc.
About the translators:
Moo Moo explores the unknown and walks the untrodden. She creates from zero and translates from one.
Polly Ho Sai Fung graduated from the University of Hong Kong. She has devoted her time to organizing poetry readings at Kubrick Poetry since 2007. She started KPS (Kubrick Poetry Society), an online writing school to nurture and facilitate poetry writing and fiction writing during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Florence Ng lives in Hong Kong and is the author of the poetry collection Wild Boar in Victoria Harbour (Kubrick, 2019). Pause for Paws is dedicated to her first cat, Handsome, who passed away in July, 2020.