Festival

Abstract

WORLDLIT.ORG 21 a POETRY Festival by Chung Kwok-keung The festival is here we play football by the door Even in a tight space my son can nail a kickoff Skilled at the nutmeg, I plan to place the ball Between the tree and hedge, a corner The shadows are dark as always The festival is here my son games with cousins Real Madrid and EFL are down 12 to 0 Beckham fouls Beckham—Penalty! Penalty! I flip the paper’s looming headlines The shady real estate agent holds law above family Cackling, he slaps yesterday’s self onto the paper’s ass The festival is here we eat meat Spit bones, noisily slurp soup The paddles they lift on TV are neat as chopsticks, High as splashes. We down all the Tsingtao And our eyes jump into the Shing Mun River To rinse away last year’s bad luck The festival is here we pick wampee fruits My wife says they’re sweet I say sour The darker ones are ripest she says I bring a bunch to my son he says no I bring one to my daughter she walks away The festival is here news of murder is on TV Steam rises and mother’s soup turns tastier Father says you must wait to slaughter chicken After plain zongzi our table needs a little sugar The festival is here I stop asking about homework Yet my son asks why the man jumped in I say perhaps, perhaps he had something to prove Aha, but in truth he proved he could not swim Yes, in today’s age, this is why you learn to swim The festival is here we get to talk nonsense We sing and forget lyrics We gather and go home The festival is here we dive into the Cross-Harbor Tunnel Thankful for the whir of engines Hypnotizing us like waves Translation from the Chinese By May Huang Visit worldlit.org to listen to the author read his poem in Chinese. Chung Kwok-keung is an acclaimed poet, essayist, and critic from Hong Kong. He is the recipient of numerous Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature, among other accolades. His poetry collections include The Growing House, Umbrellas That Blossom on the Road, and A Bright House Standing in Light Rain. May Huang is a literary translator from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her work has been published in Circumference, InTranslation, Asymptote, and elsewhere. Editorial note: May Huang was a mentee in the American Literary Translators Association’s 2020 Emerging Translator Mentorship Program. PHOTO BY MACAU PHOTO AGENCY ON UNSPLASH“ ...