我弥留之际 “On My Deathbed”
我想再看一眼大海，目睹我半生的泪水有多汪洋 I want to take another look at the ocean, behold the vastness of tears from half a lifetime
我想再爬一爬高高的山头，试着把丢失的灵魂喊回来 I want to climb another mountain, try to call back the soul that I’ve lost
我还想摸一摸天空，碰一碰那抹轻轻的蓝 I want to touch the sky, feel that blueness so light
可是这些我都办不到了，我就要离开这个世界了 But I can’t do any of this, so I’m leaving this world
所有听说过我的人们啊 Everyone who’s heard of me
不必为我的离开感到惊讶 Shouldn’t be surprised at my leaving
更不必叹息，或者悲伤 Even less should you sigh or grieve
我来时很好，去时，也很好 I was fine when I came, and fine when I left.
-- Xu Lizhi
https://libcom.org/blog/xulizhi-foxconn-suicide-poetry
《我就那样站着入睡》 "I Fall Asleep, Just Standing Like That"
眼前的纸张微微发黄 The paper before my eyes fades yellow
我用钢笔在上面凿下深浅不一的黑 With a steel pen I chisel on it uneven black
里面盛满打工的词汇 Full of working words
车间，流水线，机台，上岗证，加班，薪水…… Workshop, assembly line, machine, work card, overtime, wages...
我被它们治得服服贴贴 They've trained me to become docile
我不会呐喊，不会反抗 Don't know how to shout or rebel
不会控诉，不会埋怨 How to complain or denounce
只默默地承受着疲惫 Only how to silently suffer exhaustion
驻足时光之初 When I first set foot in this place
我只盼望每月十号那张灰色的薪资单 I hoped only for that grey pay slip on the tenth of each month
赐我以迟到的安慰 To grant me some belated solace
为此我必须磨去棱角，磨去语言 For this I had to grind away my corners, grind away my words
拒绝旷工，拒绝病假，拒绝事假 Refuse to skip work, refuse sick leave, refuse leave for private reasons
拒绝迟到，拒绝早退 Refuse to be late, refuse to leave early
流水线旁我站立如铁，双手如飞 By the assembly line I stood straight like iron, hands like flight,
多少白天，多少黑夜 How many days, how many nights
我就那样，站着入睡 Did I - just like that - standing fall asleep?
-- 20 August 2011
《惊闻90后青工诗人许立志坠楼有感》 "Upon Hearing the News of Xu Lizhi's Suicide" by Zhou Qizao (周启早), a fellow worker at Foxconn
每一个生命的消失 The loss of every life
都是另一个我的离去 Is the passing of another me
又一枚螺丝松动 Another screw comes loose
又一位打工兄弟坠楼 Another migrant worker brother jumps
你替我死去 You die in place of me
我替你继续写诗 And I keep writing in place of you
顺便拧紧螺丝 While I do so, screwing the screws tighter
今天是祖国六十五岁的生日 Today is our nation's sixty-fifth birthday
举国欢庆 We wish the country joyous celebrations
二十四岁的你立在灰色的镜框里微微含笑 A twenty-four-year-old you stands in the grey picture frame, smiling ever so slightly
秋风秋雨 Autumn winds and autumn rain
白发苍苍的父亲捧着你黑色的骨灰盒趔趄还乡 A white-haired father, holding the black urn with your ashes, stumbles home.
-- 1 October 2014
《最后的墓地》 "The Last Graveyard"
机台的鸣叫也打着瞌睡 Even the machine is nodding off
密封的车间贮藏疾病的铁 Sealed workshops store diseased iron
薪资隐藏在窗帘后面 Wages concealed behind curtains
仿似年轻打工者深埋于心底的爱情 Like the love that young workers bury at the bottom of their hearts
没有时间开口，情感徒留灰尘 With no time for expression, emotion crumbles into dust
他们有着铁打的胃 They have stomachs forged of iron
盛满浓稠的硫酸，硝酸 Full of thick acid, sulfuric and nitric
工业向他们收缴来不及流出的泪 Industry captures their tears before they have the chance to fall
时辰走过，他们清醒全无 Time flows by, their heads lost in fog
产量压低了年龄，疼痛在日夜加班 Output weighs down their age, pain works overtime day and night
还未老去的头晕潜伏生命 In their lives, dizziness before their time is latent
皮肤被治具强迫褪去 The jig forces the skin to peel
顺手镀上一层铝合金 And while it's at it, plates on a layer of aluminum alloy
有人还在坚持着，有人含病离去 Some still endure, while others are taken by illness
我在他们中间打盹，留守青春的 I am dozing between them, guarding
最后一块墓地 The last graveyard of our youth.
-- 21 December 2011