To begin ...

As the twentieth century fades out
the nineteenth begins
.......................................again
it is as if nothing happened
though those who lived it thought
that everything was happening
enough to name a world for & a time
to hold it in your hand
unlimited.......the last delusion
like the perfect mask of death

Saturday, April 14, 2012

A New Vietnamese Avant-Garde, Part Three: Poems by Trần Wũ Khang, Trúc-Ty, & Bỉm

please note. A list of postings after January 12, 2012 can be found HERE

[The following is continued from two previous postings (here and here), in the first of which details are given of an extraordinary & little known development in contemporary Vietnamese poetry & culture, like all true avant-garde art “against the grain.”]

Perpetual Pudenda (or, -the point- of Inguinal Infinity)

One day before
suddenly
the creator conceived The Cunt - the Many Cunts ever
           lasting.

The Many Cunts gave birth to man, woman & the world
birthed deeds, birthed things, birthed ecstasy with myriad eternal
                  connections
joy & suffering
crime & punishment
the Many Cunts gave birth to Many Cunts
the many Boundless Cunts

So Many Cunts wet, dry, dreary or cheerful
           - the many Boundless Cunts
so Many Cunts withered or plump
bashful or wide open
readily forgiving a million lines of poetry gone awry
a thousand lonely poets
so Many Cunts hairless, coldly forgotten
so Many Cunts have worn out their pleasure
so Many Cunts seem so mournful
so Many Cunts have contracted AIDS
so many Great Cunts...

So Many Cunts wander the streets, lie on cushions or
bamboo bedboards, legs crossed on the divan or squatting
crouched against the wooden beam of the leaf house
so Many Cunts will spend their lives still virgin
so Many Cunts perseveringly wait
like parents waiting for a disobedient child
still everlasting in its immensity

Still making a resting place for the failures
the fantasies of delinquents, the meagre spittle of
judges, the shrunken moulds of the exem(buddha)plary, the fury of
false virtue, swallowing the saliva of the impotent
the Many Cunts still generous, the imperishable state of generosity

Body immense like mother, resigned like
older sister, gentle like younger sister - I solemnly
call their name: Many Cunts! O Darling!

When happy I fondle Body, when sad
I rest my head on Body, when hungry I bite
Body, thirsty I drink Body,
the Many Cunts like bottomless wells

When lonely (oh how many poets are lonely)
(in lieu of the ancient gLOOm of time immemorial)
you must pronounce the sound CCUUUNNT
the sound CCUUUNNT changes to pleasant warmth
- your loneliness will cease instantly

When I don’t have the means, Body is
the means, I absorb the target, Body is
the target, I am terrorized, threatened, Body is
the place of snug and cozy refuge, I am spurned
Body shakes until solace assuages
The Many Cunts immutable

Oceans dry up, mountains wear away - Body
systems atrophy, civilization crumbles - Body remains
eternal, the beginning and the end: The Many Cunts...

-Trn Wũ Khang: “Cái ln, vô tn”, from Quà tng ca qu s (Gift of the demon)

______________________

The people & the police

                              as a gift to uncle Dieu cay & Duy Anh, hey uncle
Dieu, I hate police and doctors most of all...

          
The police have the right to arrest the people. The
     people
never have the right to arrest the police. Unless
the police are public servants of the people. And
     unless
the chief of police is also a public citizen. But when
police are police they are no longer citi-zens because
they’re police. The people only have
the right to arrest the police when the police are no
     longer
police but also no longer the people. If
police are no longer police but they’re still
people than the people don’t have the right to
     arrest them. Only
the police have the right to arrest police that are no
longer police but still people. But for
police to arrest police who are no longer police
but are still people is very rare to happen
but still happens. But for the police to arrest people
who are still people is not at all rare to happen.
We have witnessed (on the screen) scenes of
police arresting people who are still people.
What’s more, we have witnessed police
severely beating people and jabbing guns in the
people’s mouths. The people can only arrest and
brutalize and jab guns in the mouths of the police
     when
the people become police and trade places with
     the police
who return to being people. I, a person, wish
me and all the other people like me will become po-
lice, and wish all the police will become peo-
ple like me. So that me and the other people like me
(who have become police) can at our leisure arrest
     and
severely beat and jab guns in the mouth of the police
     (who
have become people). I long for all the people and
police to show the utmost sympathy for this over
     flowing desire
of mine.
_____

Notes:
If any people or police feel resentful
(towards me), I beg you to gladly contact my lawyer:
the devil’s assistant phan bá th, cell 0909.909009

-Trúc-Ty: “Công dân & công an”, from Trưc khi thành giy vn (Before becoming scrap paper)
___________________

non[ramble]sense 5

shut
go
write
get
poop
write
get
tidy
be alert
keep
sit
write
gaze
tremble
send
get
poop
tidy
worry
keep
attack
unify
ingratiate
insult
ingratiate
quiver
write
swell with pride
chew
chew
chew
get
keep
die
=> this thing rethinks shared affection among the group, but how to
know now, alas resigned in ambiguity and waiting or sitting on the alter,
this this, this, don’t be a fake, y’hear


- Bm: “l[nh]m 5”, from L..
_________________
non[ramble]sense 6
recalling a dream the night of 3/14/2008
mouth curved up in a smile
a human body lies across the iron bed
raise up the left hand
while the right hand has shed its skin, bones detached, meat stripped
continue to watch the mysterious being
helps me to peel the skin, detach bones, strip meat
I exhale
rest
inhale
rest
exhale
eyes aslant
eyes aslant
aslant
tongue not out
he works smoothly
it takes 7 minutes and 30 seconds
I lie silent
watching the figure
watching my two hands
the removal is complete
there is no blood
there is no mess
I don’t cry, don’t smile
close eyes
open eyes
eyes flicker
eyes flicker
flicker eyes
sit silently
wait for morning
prepare my brain for the work of a new day!
=> if not then die from hunger, or go following the beggars
for alms

- Bm “l[nh]m 6”, from L..

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