Beggars
by Lu Xun, translated from the Chinese into English by Matt Turner
I’m walking alongside a high, peeling wall, stamping loose dust. Several others walk alone. A breeze comes up, and tree branches above the wall, with still-unwithered leaves, shake over my head.
A breeze comes up, and everything’s dust.
A child in a lined shirt begs from me. He doesn’t seem to be suffering. A charade of blocking and kowtows—this crying after me.
I loathe his tone, his pose. Detest that he isn’t suffering grief—it’s just a game! I’m tired of him chasing me, whining.
I walk on. Several others walk alone. A breeze comes up, and everything’s dust.
A child in a lined shirt begs from me. He doesn’t seem to suffer. It’s a charade as he dumbly holds his hands out, a gesture.
I loathe such gestures. Maybe he’s not even mute and this is just his way of begging.
I don’t give alms, I don’t have a heart. I’m over alms, I give them boredom, doubt, and hate.
I’m walking alongside a defeated, muddy wall, broken bricks folded into holes, and beyond the wall is nothing. A breeze comes up, sends fall cold through my clothes, and everything’s dust.
I’m wondering what method I should use for begging. Sound: what tone? Act: what gesture?
A few others walk alone.
I’ll take no alms, no heart. I’ll take boredom, doubt and hate over alms.
I’ll use inaction and silence to beg!…
Whatever comes I’ll take the void.
A breeze comes up, and everything’s dust. Several others walk alone.
Dust, dust…
Dust…
September 24, 1924
求乞者
魯迅
我順着剝落的高牆走路，踏着松的灰土。另外有幾個人，各自走路。微風起來，露在牆頭的高樹的枝條帶着還未乾枯的葉子在我頭上搖動。
微風起來，四面都是灰土。
一個孩子向我求乞，也穿着夾衣，也不見得悲慼，而攔着磕頭，追着哀呼。
我厭惡他的聲調，態度。我憎惡他並不悲哀，近於兒戲；我煩厭他這追着哀呼
我走路。另外有幾個人各自走路。微風起來，四面都是灰土。
一個孩子向我求乞，也穿着夾衣，也不見得悲慼，但是啞的，攤開手，裝着手勢。
我就憎惡他這手勢。而且，他或者並不啞，這不過是一種求乞的法子。
我不佈施，我無佈施心，我但居佈施者之上，給與煩膩，疑心，憎惡。
我順着倒敗的泥牆走路，斷磚疊在牆缺口，牆裏面沒有什麼。微風起來，送秋寒穿透我的夾衣；四面都是灰土。
我想着我將用什麼方法求乞：發聲，用怎樣聲調？裝啞，用怎樣手勢？……
另外有幾個人各自走路。
我將得不到佈施，得不到佈施心；我將得到自居於佈施之上者的煩膩，疑心，憎惡。
我將用無所為和沉默求乞……
我至少將得到虛無。
微風起來，四面都是灰土。另外有幾個人各自走路。
灰土，灰土，……
灰土……
一九二四年九月二十四日
Matt Turner is the author of the full poetry collections Slab Pases (BlazeVox, 2022), Wave 9: Collages (Flying Islands, 2020) and Not Moving (Broken Sleep, 2019), in addition to the prose chapbooks City/Anti-City (Vitamin, 2022) and Be Your Dog (Economy, 2022). He is co-translator, with Weng Haiying, of work by Yan Jun, Ou Ning, Hu Jiujiu and others. He lives in New York City, where he works as a translator and copy editor.
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