Yong Shu Hoong has authored one poetry chapbook, Right of the Soil (2016), as well as five poetry collections, including Frottage (2005) and The Viewing Party (2013), which won the Singapore Literature Prize in 2006 and 2014 respectively. His poems and short stories have been published in literary journals like Quarterly Literary Review Singapore and Asia Literary Review (Hong Kong), and anthologies like Language for a New Century (W.W. Norton, 2008). He is the editor of anthologies like Passages: Stories of Unspoken Journeys (2013), as well as Here Now There After (2017), which was part of The Commuting Reader series commissioned for the #BuySingLit movement. He is one of the four co-authors of The Adopted: Stories from Angkor (2015) and Lost Bodies: Poems Between Portugal and Home (2016).
Negation
I’m not a vegetarian
but I go meatless
on occasions for
the best intentions.
Eating too fast is
another sin. When I
bite my lip and blood
corrupts my vegetables
I’m no longer even
a vegetarian for a day.
非
我非素食主义者
但因缘际会，总有些时候
为一些美好的诉求
戒肉
自然，吃太快
也是罪。当我
咬到唇 血
染口边蔬菜时
那日 我已断非
一清白的素食者
(Translation by Chow Teck Seng)
~
Meat Joy, 2014*
To put it blandly, it is
just lunch.
But armed with a pinch
of salt, I can certainly try
to unlock all the flavours
and serve a fresh perspective.
Take for example, a wedge
of New York City, stuck
in a mall in Hillview where a few
HDB blocks used to stand,
before the entire estate
was roundly erased. After dust
settles, the new sign proclaims:
Dean & DeLuca. A chain of
upscale grocery stores, first
started in SoHo in 1977.
This is 2014, 11.30am.
I’m having my $18 burger.
The beef is so thick that
well-doneness doesn’t seep into
the patty’s core. I survey
the large plate, and consider how
best to devour the grub.
My mouth isn’t wide enough.
So I pick up the knife
to draw blood by carving
through the meat, reflecting:
How well this red sap
must look, when splattered
across the floor space
of gleaming white marble!
I feel like having a brawl
With the taste of violence
upon the wingtip of my tongue.
But there’s no worthy opponent
here – only nerdy schoolgirls
fretting over homework, and
straight-laced office workers
celebrating Happy Birthday
with a silly cupcake bearing
a desolate candle.
I want to get up
and blow out that flame
wavering for way too long
under someone else’s nose,
but I’m too filled to move.
I do not dare to request
for more hot water to douse
my half-spent teabag.
Lunchtime is officially over
If not for the haze, lapping
menacingly against full-length window.
* This poem appeared on the website Kitaab and in Yong Shu Hoong’s chapbook, Right of the Soil (Nanyang Technological University & Ethos Books, 2016), but without the Chinese translation.
无肉不欢，2014
说白点， 这
不过就是午餐
别太较真 就如一把
盐巴， 我会尝试
从新鲜的视角 去品
出最丰富的味道
举例来说，纽约市的斧头
餐馆，已深入
本地山景区的商场腹地
当然原本挺拔的几座组屋
已连根拔起 整个住宅区
也完满删除。尘埃落定处
竖起招牌宣称：
Dean & DeLuca
高大上的食品连锁广场
品牌1977创建于SOHO
现在是2014年，上午11点30分
我正啃食18元的汉堡
过厚的牛肉，肉饼内部
未能熟透。我眼观巨盘
的四周，思考 如何让口
绕道避开令人为难的血腥
唯我嘴断非血盆大口
于是动刀
雕刻肉身
划出血痕
引血反思：
当血水溅洒
雪白晶莹的
大理石地板
上，红将会
何等娇艳？
我但觉经历一场厮杀
舌尖遂尝
暴力的滋味
一一竟是所向披靡
此处，仅有乖乖牌学生妹数名
纠缠在功课里
一些一本正经的
公司职员在庆生：
为可怜兮兮的杯型小蛋糕
插上孤单的小烛影
我想站起
把窝在人鼻息下
摇摆不定 太久
的火焰 一口气给灭了
唯自己 实腹饱难动
我也不敢
要多点沸水
让未泡尽的茶袋 再来个水浸灭顶
午休已尽。该落下庄严的帷幕？
唯全景玻璃窗外
尚有雾霾，正肆虐着 掩埋天地如幕
(Translation by Chow Teck Seng)