The old lady, left behind,
被遺棄的老人
94, clean and tidy, still living, watching strangers
活到94，白白淨淨依然活著，注視著陌生的來人
enter and leave the dim yinziwu, says little.
進出昏暗的窨子屋，話很少。
The middle-aged man, left behind,
被遺棄的中年人
got up like a local Qing official, acts the judge in another yinziwu,
清代小官吏打扮，在另一座窨子屋裏，表演清官斷案，
amusing tourists and himself, earning a few kuai.
娛人娛己而已，可領到少許工資。
His wife’s still his wife,
他老婆還是他老婆
her face shining with sweat, rinsing vegetables, chopping noisily,
大汗滿臉，洗菜用水，切菜出聲，炒菜起油煙，
cooking in the smoky pan.
盼望搬進山上的新房，遺棄這本屬他人的舊居
She hopes to move into a new house on the mountainside, abandon this old place
owned by someone else.
三十年代的小軍閥遺棄了洪江
四十年代的土匪遺棄了青樓
In the thirties, the small warlords left Hongjiang.
五十年代的掌櫃的為國家捐罷飛機就遺棄了櫃檯
In the forties, the bandits left the brothels.
In the fifties, the shopkeepers left their counters after donating airplanes
打壽材的手藝
to the nation.
被一個初中文化的青年繼承下來
這類生意任你天翻地覆將持續到地老天荒
The coffinmakers’ craft
left to a young man with a middle-school education.
好風景總是破舊的
His trade will last till heaven and earth expire, no matter
牆上褪色的標語表達過革命，現在留給遊人
how the world inverts.
槍斃過反革命的路口現在留給了新型資本主義
What’s left behind makes good landscapes,
而舊資本主義退回
old revolutionary slogans fading on the walls, preserved for tourists,
農業的月色，被埋葬於江聲、老鼠的嘰嘰叫
the intersection where counter-revolutionaries were executed,
和鬼魂的附庸風雅的吟誦
preserved for capitalism’s new face.
在某間舊油號的地下
Yet the old capitalism remains
幾頓舊黃金重現，歸了政府，不知是否又重新
beneath the farmer’s moon, beneath the rush of the river, the rats’ squeaks,
流通回社會？——受不了得勢者的哈哈大笑。
the high-flown recitations of old ghosts.
沅江和巫水依舊匯流於舊地
Under an ancient oil-trader’s shop
運桐油的大船是否會為開發旅遊，響應黨的號召
a few tons of gold bars were found, turned over to the government. Who knows
而從水下開回舊碼頭？
what recirculates? Those with the upper hand, their laughs unbearable.
The waters of the Yuan and Wu still merge where they always did.
The big boat that carried tung oil, will it open to tourists, as the party wants,
towed to its old dock?