Liao Yiwu for Charlie Hebdo

Liao Yiwu’s text appears in print in German in this weekend’s Neue Zürcher Zeitung (http://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/weiter-zittern-1.18457759). In the print edition there are several other articles on the same page, one of them Yi Sha’s 伊沙 poem

PIGEON 《鸽子》

in my view straight ahead
a white pigeon goes
through fire up to the sky
keeps on flying
changed into black
maybe just its shadow
its soul
flying. maybe ash
can hold the form of a dove
sailing high

2000
Tr. MW, 2015

伊沙
《鸽子》

在我平视的远景里
一只白色的鸽子
穿过冲天大火
继续在飞
飞成一只黑鸟
也许只是它的影子
它的灵魂
在飞 也许灰烬
也会保持鸽子的形状
依旧高飞

2000

Yi Sha
TAUBE

in meinem blick nach vorn in die ferne
segelt eine weiße taube
durch ein himmelhohes feuer
sie fliegt weiter
als schwarzer vogel
vielleicht ist es nur ihr schatten
ihre seele
die fliegt. vielleicht kann die asche
die form einer taube bewahren
und weiter segeln

2000
Übersetzt von MW in Jänner 2013

==================================

Liao Yiwu’s opinion on Mo Yan and so on isn’t necessarily the same as mine, by the way.

Martin

Source: German Book Trade Peace Prize (1/9/14): http://www.friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de/859519/

Liao Yiwu
FOR MY TWELVE COLLEAGUES AT CHARLIE HEBDO IN PARIS
Translated by Martin Winter

Freedom of speech, of expression. This is what every writer believes in. Our 12 colleagues at Charlie Hebdu have died for this creed of every writer, no, of every person who lives in freedom.

Have you ever trembled? Yes, I have trembled.

I am still trembling. But I also still take up my pen.

Terrorists and terrorist countries take us for terrorists, even when none of us holds any weapon.

In 2012, Mo Yan, who believes in Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party, received the Nobel prize for literature. In front of the assembled Western media he compared censorship to airport security control. Nothing special, everybody had to go through it. He took writers who believe in freedom, and everyone who pays a price for saying their minds, for hijackers.

No, they are the hijackers! They hold countries for ransom, they take religion hostage, their ultimate goal is to hijack everyone’s freedom of speech. If you don’t hand it over, they will follow you like a nightmare to the ends of the world.

Yesterday, crazed terrorists have killed our colleagues in Paris in a massacre, because they had not submitted to censorship. They had sent them a warning before, a letter bomb.

Our 12 colleagues, did they tremble?

Yes, I think they have trembled. Their trembling is like a virus, I have already caught it.

Maybe I will go on trembling, maybe for a long time. But I will also take up my pen.

Just like 26 years ago, in the night of the Tian’anmen massacre.

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