Revenge (update 20151107)

Revenge

Lu Xun, Dec 20, 1924

Translation by Huiwen Zhang, 2014; last update Nov 7, 2015

¹ Human skin’s thickness, probably less than a millimeter; scarlet hot blood spreads just beneath it, through vessels even more dense than the densely layered silkworms that crawl up a wall, surging, radiating warmth.  Thus with this warmth each bewitches, incites, and tugs the others, with all its might desiring to cuddle, kiss, and embrace, so as to gain life’s sinking, intoxicated Euphoria.

² But if using a sharp dagger, only one thrust, to pierce through this peach-toned tenuous skin, the scarlet hot blood will spray a torrent of arrows and with all its warmth immediately flood the slaughterer; then, to touch him with icy breath, show him pale lips, will cause him to lose all humanity and gain life’s soaring, climactic Euphoria; as for the slaughtered, he himself will be perpetually immersed in life’s soaring, climactic Euphoria.

³ This way, therefore, there are two of them, stark naked, pinching daggers, standing opposite each other in the vast wilderness.

⁴ The two of them about to embrace, about to slaughter….

⁵ Passing men from all around swarm in, densely layered, like silkworms crawling up a wall, like ants yearning to haul away a cured fish head.  Clothes all pretty, hands however empty.  Yet from all around swarming in, with all their might stretching necks out, yearning to savor and scrutinize this embrace or slaughter.  They already foresense the fresh taste of sweat or blood after the event on their own tongues.

⁶ Yet the two of them stand opposite each other in the vast wilderness, stark naked, pinching daggers, yet not embracing, not slaughtering, not even showing an intention to embrace or slaughter.

⁷ The two of them remain this way ’til eternity, robust limber bodies already about to wither, yet not even showing the slightest intention to embrace or slaughter.

⁸ The passing men thus become bored, feel the boredom burrowing into their pores, feel the boredom burrowing out of their own hearts through their pores, crawling all over the wilderness, and then again burrowing into the others’ pores.  They thus feel throats and tongues dry, necks weary, so that in the end they face one another in blank dismay and slowly disperse, even feeling so withered as to lose life’s interest.

                  ⁹ Thus left behind is only the vast wilderness, while the two of them in it, stark naked, pinching daggers, stand withered—with the gaze of the dead savoring and scrutinizing the passing men’s witheredness, bloodless slaughter, while perpetually immersed in life’s soaring, climactic Euphoria.

I THANK my students of CHIN 3143 Fall 2015 for their suggestions: Marshall Cornet, Savanna DeWeese, Justin Dussold, Madison Reid, and Kyle Wipfli.