THE MOON LEAPS FROM THE RIVER
Dream: 21 April, 2005

I am riding a bicycle down the road, but there is actually
no road to follow. The road ahead is piled up with timber,
and wooden planks are lying in water. If people aren't
careful, the could drive their cars into the water. I have
to figure out a way to get through. There's no way to
lean the wood along the banks. I am wearing old cotton
clothes and loading timber onto a horse-drawn cart in a
timber factory. I discover that some colleague of mine is
also doing work there. I don't know if he's seen me or not.
I just here trying to eke out a living for my family.

A foreign woman is having a baby. She is very cold. He
husband is from the Art Academy. I gather her family
members together to comfort her. She goes to work in a
museum. I know so-and-so is also at that university, but
no one will go with her. Several of us sit in her home, in
fact we are her neighbors. So-and-so, and what's-his-face,
and someone else, are all there.

I have to go to the bathroom, so I go out the courtyard
back gate, looking for a place where no one is around so
I can pee. I have just squatted down between a row of
old machines too relieve myself, when I discover that an
old man has arrived. Startled, I hurry up to get out of the
there and go back. The man follows me with a newspaper
in hand and I am afraid. Because there is rainwater around
the main front gate, I take the back gate and return to the
room. I tell everybody: so-and-so couldn't go pee.

The foreign woman goes out again. I search for my socks
in that room. I go to the campus to look for Hui, but
instead I see his classmate Rong. She keeps scrutinizing
the celadon ware. It's said that her father works in the
museum. Because it is the graduating class, Hui goes
home early, and the rest of the people hold a conference.
The topic is a report about a Japanese style. Rong goes
charging through the ticketing checkpoint clutching a
number of white porcelain cups. I can't help her bring
those porcelain wares to the US.

Hanging out at home, it's already dark out. I show her the
neon lights from the windows on the sun balcony. They
are red and green. Excitedly she tells me that there is a
rooster standing on the window ledge. I stick out my neck
and see it. It is pitch black night but my little sister calls
us from bed to come and see the moon rising. It's the kind
of rare scene one hardly ever has the chance to glimpse.
From the window we watch the moon leaping from the
river and turning into a ball of fire that shoots upward. It
is simply magnificent! We talk about how we have never
experienced such a night. I ask Rong which room is hers.


梦2005 年4 月21 日月亮从河水中跳出

我骑自行车在路上，却无路可走，前面的路是树木
搭成的，木板躺在水中，不小心人与车将落入水中，
想办法走过去，木头无法靠岸，我穿上旧布衣在木
头厂里装马车上的大木头，发现同事某某也在干活，
不知道他看到我没有，我是为家中糊口而来这儿干
活的。

一个外国女人在生孩子，她很冷，她的老公是美院的，
我们都聚集在她家中安慰她，她又去博物馆里干活
了，我知道那所大学某某某也在那，但无人和她一
起去，我们几个人都坐在她家中，却是她的邻居，
有某某某、还有某某、某某某等人也在那儿。
在庭院走出后门去上厕所，找无人地方去小便，刚
刚蹲在几排旧机器中间要解小便，我发现来一个老
年男人，吓了我一跳急忙逃回，他手拿报纸跟在我
身后，我怕。前门因为有雨水地不干，我才到后门
去的，回到屋子里，我向大家说，某某某他还没解
出小便呢。

外国女人又去了。我在那间屋子里寻找自己的袜子
穿。到学校去找辉，结果看到的是他的同学荣，她
一直在钻研青瓷，听说她父亲在博物馆，因为是毕
业班，辉提前回家了，剩下的人在开会，内容是有
关日本形式方面的报告，荣通过检票口时，手拿几
件白瓷水杯冲出检票口，我无法帮助她拿出瓷器到
美国。

到家中玩，天又黑，我让她看阳台外的窗口霓虹灯，
红绿都有，她兴奋告诉我，有一只大公鸡站在窗台
上，我也伸头看到它了，夜很黑可躺在床上妹妹把
我们都叫起来看月亮出来了，这景色太难让人看到
了，月亮从窗前的河水中跳出变成一团火球冲上去，
太壮观了，我们在议论，从未见过这样的夜。我问荣，
你住哪一间。