The Cry of a Generation
By Shu Ting
Translated by Richard King

I do not complain
about my misfortune—
The loss of my youth,
The deforming of my soul.
Sleepless nights without number
have left me with bitter memories.
I have rejected all received truths,
I have broken free of all shackles,
And all that remains of my heart
is in ruins, as far as the eye can see …
But still, I have stood up!
I stand on the expanse of the horizon.
Never again will anyone, by any means,
be able to push me down.

If it were me, lying in a martyr’s grave,
green moss eating away the characters on my headstone;
If it were me, savouring the taste of life behind bars,
        debating points of law with my chains;
If it were me, my face haggard and pale,
        atoning for my crimes with an eternity of labour;
If it were me, it would be
        my tragedy alone—
Perhaps I might already have forgiven
Perhaps my grieving and my anger
        might already be at rest.

But,
For the sake of the fathers of the children,
For the sake of the children of the fathers,
So that we no longer need to tremble
        at the unspoken reproaches
        from beneath the gravestones everywhere;
So that we may no longer be faced
        wherever we turn
        by the spectre of the homeless;
So that innocent children
        a hundred years from now
        need not guess at the history we leave behind.
For this blank in our nation’s memory,
For the arduous path our race must travel,
For the purity of the skies
        and the straightness of the road ahead—
I Demand The Truth!

February 1980

舒婷：一代人的呼聲

我決不申訢
我個人的遭遇。
錯過的青春，
變形的靈魂。
無數失眠之夜，
留下來痛苦的回憶。
我推翻了一道道定義；
我砸碎了一層層枷鎮；
心中只剩下
一片觸目的廢墟……
但是，我站起來了，
站在廣闊的地手線上，
再沒有人，没有任何手段
能把我重新推下去。

假如是我，躺在“烈士”墓裡，
青苔侵蚀了石板上的字跡；
假如是我，嘗遍鐵窗風味，
和鐐銬爭辦真正的法律；
假如是我，形容枯槁憔悴
贖罪般的勞作永無盡期；
假如是我，僅僅是
我的悲劇——
我也許已經寬恕，
我的淚水和憤怒，
也許可以平息。

但是，為了孩子們的父親，
為了父親們的孩子，
為了各地紀念碑下，
那無聲的責問不再使人顫栗；
為了一度露宿街頭的畫面
不再使我們的眼睛無處躲避；
為了百年後天真的孩子
不用對我們留下的歷史猜謎；
為了祖國的這份空白，
為了民族的這段崎嶇，
為了天空的純潔
        和道路的正直
我要求真理！

一九八〇年二月