Hong Ying (b. 1962) grew up in the slums along the Yangtze river in the city of Chongqing in Sichuan province, China. She studied at the Lu Xun Academy for Creative Writers in Beijing and in the Department of Chinese at Fudan University in Shanghai, while publishing poetry, short fiction and essays at the same time. After relocating to London in 1991 she published three novels in quick succession: Summer of Betrayal (1995), Daughter of the River (1997), and K: the Art of Love (1999). In 2000 she returned as a celebrity to China where she has a considerable cult following. Other novels followed: Peacock cries (2003), Lord of Shanghai (2004), Death in Shanghai (2005), and Sequel to Daughter of the River: Good Children of the Flowers (2009) that received an Asia Week’s Top Ten Novels of the Year Award in 2010. All of these novels were released in many other languages soon after being published in Chinese. Her novel K: the Art of Love won the Premio Letterario Rome Prize in 2005 on the publication of an Italian-language edition. A number of her novels have been turned into TV series and films.
我也叫萨朗波
没人会记得我，记不得也没关系
马车早就去得无影
那鞭痕早就不痛
爱一个人
成为一个梦
远比无梦更虚无
我死了
什么也不知道
美貌如此结束，时代如此结束
今天的海上看不见鸟
给我一杯红葡萄酒吧
再给我一只苹果
萨朗波只是一个名字
你们都不是好心肠的人
看着天上的云会忘记如何看云的过程
那几何体如何折叠
一个人如何被消失
我记得他走到我面前
说，你看看我的眼睛
里面全是性，全是悲伤的歌
他闭上眼睛
很冰冷
我的嘴唇贴上去却如火燃烧
哦，他才是一个好心肠的人
Author: Hong Ying
I Am Also Called Salammbo
Nobody remembers me, but it doesn’t matter
No sign of the carriage that left long ago
And the whiplashes also stopped hurting long ago
Loving someone
Turns into a dream
A greater void than having no dreams
I am dead
And know nothing
Beauty ends like that, and the times and like that
On the sea today no birds can be seen
Give me a glass of red wine
And give me an apple
Salammbo is just a name
None of you is good-hearted
You look at clouds, forgetting how to look at them
How geometric shapes fold
How a person is made to vanish
I remember him coming to me
And saying, look at my eyes
They were full of lust, full of sad songs
He closed his eyes
And they were icy cold
But when my lips touched them they burned like fire
Yes indeed, now he is a good person
Translated by Mabel Lee
我也叫萨朗波
没人会记得我，记不得也没关系
马车早就去得无影
那鞭痕早就不痛
爱一个人
成为一个梦
远比无梦更虚无
我死了
什么也不知道
美貌如此结束，时代如此结束
今天的海上看不见鸟
给我一杯红葡萄酒吧
再给我一只苹果
萨朗波只是一个名字
你们都不是好心肠的人
看着天上的云会忘记如何看云的过程
那几何体如何折叠
一个人如何被消失
我记得他走到我面前
说，你看看我的眼睛
里面全是性，全是悲伤的歌
他闭上眼睛
很冰冷
我的嘴唇贴上去却如火燃烧
哦，他才是一个好心肠的人
Author: Hong Ying
I Am Also Called Salammbo
Nobody remembers me, but it doesn’t matter
No sign of the carriage that left long ago
And the whiplashes also stopped hurting long ago
Loving someone
Turns into a dream
A greater void than having no dreams
I am dead
And know nothing
Beauty ends like that, and the times and like that
On the sea today no birds can be seen
Give me a glass of red wine
And give me an apple
Salammbo is just a name
None of you is good-hearted
You look at clouds, forgetting how to look at them
How geometric shapes fold
How a person is made to vanish
I remember him coming to me
And saying, look at my eyes
They were full of lust, full of sad songs
He closed his eyes
And they were icy cold
But when my lips touched them they burned like fire
Yes indeed, now he is a good person
Translated by Mabel Lee
