Workers’ Expression of Romance
by Chris Song, translated from the Chinese by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho
{{{ Hong Kong—Monday 24 August 2020 }}}
Today there were nine confirmed Covid cases in Hong Kong. It’s the first time in weeks that the number has gone down to single digits. But a piece of very worrying news looms: reports of reinfection. A patient younger than me has been diagnosed with Covid twice, several months apart. All over the world, companies and institutions are working hard to develop vaccines. The medical team at the University of Hong Kong has warned that vaccines might be effective only for a short time and that we should be prepared for coexisting with the virus. People in this city seem not to be blessed with peace of mind for even one day. After all, the coronavirus has been here for very many months…
In the afternoon, we walked past the junction of Star Street and Wing Fung Street. The construction site sent out rumbling, roaring noises, imagining a future sky line. Giant tipper trucks come in and out of the site and a middle-aged woman stands on the street to help divert the traffic. A helmet on her head, held up high, and her back perfectly upright. When shouting at the trucks, her voice booms, even the fiercest street dogs are petrified. When she tells pedestrians to cross the road, her voice is soft. Although her figure is by no means towering, you wouldn’t think she’s petite. She uses simple Chinese and English that can be understood easily, while her hand gestures are straightforward. She’s courteous and yet she possesses an air of authority. Everybody behaves. When a pedestrian criss-crosses between the trucks as though dancing, onlookers throw him admonishing looks—there was no need for the lady conductor to do it…
The construction workers have built a temporary passage for pedestrians beside the site. Today I saw some plants on the concrete divider. The workers have recycled helmets and turned them into flower pots for pilea notata and silver leaf plants, etc. Not only are they pleasant to look at and environmentally friendly, they also repel mosquitos and insects. A small and thoughtfully-designed steel structure fastens each helmet pot; between the pots the recommended “social distance” is duly maintained. This workers’ expression of romance eclipses the hipster restaurants and fancy shops nearby…
今天香港9宗新冠肺炎確診病例。單日確證數字降至個位數，這是去個星期以來的第一次，但是今天也傳來一個令人非常擔憂的消息。香港出現了重複感染病例，比我還年輕的病人兩次感染事隔數月。世界各地爭相研發疫苗，港大醫學團隊又認為疫苗有效期可能比較短，要做好人病共存的心理準備。這座城市真是沒有一天讓人省心，這種疫境已經持續了很多個月了⋯⋯
下午走過星街和永豐街交界，建築地盤正在轟轟隆隆地幻想未來的天際線。地盤常常有大型泥頭車出入，有位中年女性站在街道上疏導交通。她戴著安全帽，腰板挺得很直，頭抬得很高。她身材不高，但是不會讓人感覺到她矮小。她大聲向泥頭車呼喊，就連最惡的野狗也會被嚇呆，然後又小聲向行人示意可以通行。她用的中英文都簡單易明，她的手勢也讓人一看即解。她很有禮貌，當中也帶著一絲威嚴，大家都遵守規矩。有個行人躲著泥頭車跳舞般穿行，他被其他行人責怪，都不用指揮員出馬⋯⋯
工人在地盤旁邊搭建了臨時的人行通道。今天發現通護欄上多了一些綠色。他們循環利用安全帽，把它們倒過來當作花盆，種上冷水花、銀葉菊之類的植物，既環保美觀，又驅蚊趕蟲。他們在護欄上焊接多兩條鐵管固定安全帽花盆，花盆之間還保持著固定的「社交」距離。這分工人的浪漫，讓周圍的hipster餐廳和店舖都黯然失色⋯⋯
How to cite: Song, Chris. “Workers’ Expression of Romance” Translated by Tammy Lai-Ming Ho. Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 26 Oct. 2022, chajournal.blog/2022/10/26/workers-romance/.
Chris Song (author) is a poet, translator, editor, and scholar. He has published four collections of poetry and many volumes of poetry in translation. Chris received an “Extraordinary Mention” at Italy’s UNESCO-recognized Nosside World Poetry Prize 2013 and the Young Artist Award at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. In 2018 he obtained a PhD in Translation Studies from Lingnan University. More recently he won Haizi Poetry Award in 2019. Chris is currently Editor-in-Chief of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine and Assistant Professor at the Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough.
Tammy Lai-Ming Ho (translator) is the Editor-in-Chief of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, an editor of the academic journal Hong Kong Studies, and the first English-language Editor of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine. She is also a Junior Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities and an advisor to the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. Tammy’s first collection of poetry is Hula Hooping (Chameleon 2015), for which she won the Young Artist Award in Literary Arts from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Her first short story collection Her Name Upon The Strand (Delere Press), her second poetry collection Too Too Too Too (Math Paper Press) and chapbook An Extraterrestrial in Hong Kong (Musical Stone) were published in 2018. Her first academic book is Neo-Victorian Cannibalism (Palgrave, 2019). Tammy edited or co-edited a number of literary volumes having a strong focus on Hong Kong, including Voice & Verse 21/21 Anthology and Twin Cities: An Anthology of Twin Cinema from Singapore and Hong Kong (Landmark Books, 2017). She guest-edited a Hong Kong Feature for World Literature Today (Spring 2019), the Hong Kong special issue of Svenska PEN’s PEN/Opp, and an e-chapbook of Hong Kong poetry published by Cordite Publishing. Tammy is also a translator and her literary translations can be found in World Literature Today, Chinese Literature Today, Pathlight: New Chinese Writing, among other places, and International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong volumes (2015, 2017 and 2019).
(Header photograph © Oliver Farry.)
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