Happy Chinese New Year
(By Cynthia Gallaher , Chicago, USA)
you make a mistake, erase it from the board.
you tire of dabbing the bottom of the paint cup.
you want a fresh start,
to break free from the same-old,
be brand new, but still be you.
China? They know how to work with
the same old thing,
have been at it
for five thousand years.
so every Chinese New Year’s,
there are reasons we clean our houses
from top to bottom, sweep away
last year’s bad luck with a broom.
what better time to wear new clothes,
make up with friends you’ve had fights with,
paint the front door with a fresh coat of red,
spread out bright flowers and bowls of glowing fruit.
most of all, spill by the hundreds to line streets for
parades of dragon puppets 50-people long,
looping and curving into a long-life ahead,
to see lions dance with roosters dance with monkeys,
and watch clowns mime, somersault, walk on stilts.
gongs and cymbals ring through icy air
warming the winter February here in Chinatown
into a new spring we can’t yet see, but can imagine.
even our ancestors celebrate,
and clap their hands from a faraway place.
there are reasons this happens over and over,
because no matter how old our culture grows,
each year is new to its people,
we are all young ones in this ancient world,
with hopes, ideas, heartbeats
that spark and pop
like a huge braid of firecrackers,
there are countless reasons to believe
that everything we are
will fill up the next year
to the brim.
中国新年
（作者： Cynthia Gallaher， 翻译 ： 苏东波）
你弄错了，把它从板上擦掉，
你厌倦了涂抹油漆杯的底部。
你想要一个新的开始，
摆脱同样的老，
是全新的，但仍然是你
中国？ 他们一直
延续五千年历史，
过了
五千年的年
所以每个中国新年，
他们打扫房子
从上到下，扫除
把去年不好运气扫出。
他们知道什么时候穿新衣服，
在新年时候与朋友和解，
用一层新鲜的红色涂在前门上，
用鲜花和水果庆祝。
请看，数百人在街上耍龙舞，
看看那长长的人流，
看到狮子公鸡一起和猴子跳舞，
观看小丑哑剧，翻筋斗，踩高跷。
在冰冷的空气中
在唐人街二月温暖的冬天
我们似乎看到的新春天，
用我们的祖先想不到的方式，
在那个地方庆祝。
中国年年年过，
这是为什么？
因为无论我们的文化变化，
每年对我们都是新的，
我们都是这个古老世界的年轻人，
希望，期待，祝福
象那火花和鞭炮，
庆祝新年
明年依然如此
