Bearly Itch 熊译之痒
Poetry-Translation Apparatus
(fault in progress during the war)
诗歌对位翻译装置 (战争状态持续故障中)
“Bearly Itch” explores the boundaries of translation, where Asian bodies are systematically misread, and I choose to view this imposed illegibility as a natural, inevitable form of resistance. Drawing from my grandfather’s experience as a telegraph expert in Hanoi, I created a fusion of telegraphic syntax and bodily experience. The “touch.flow=good.hard” in “Bath’s Notes (COPY.CAT)” both conceals and reveals, while “China=Holland” through equations like “China=Failed Child+Love” demonstrates how identity cannot be completely transmitted in translation, forever existing in a state of malfunction.
“The Vanishing Point” begins with “where is my orgasm?” as a starting point to explore absence and disappearance. My experience of my mother’s cancer when I was 20 became a metaphor for understanding all forms of loss—her illness paralleling my mother tongue’s loss of voice. In this dual dispossession, I discovered the essence of translation: a contrapuntal relationship that can never fully arrive, yet must persistently strive.
“It was hardly war, the hardliest of wars. Hardly, hardly.”—this quote embodies the core state of “Bearly Itch”: hovering between “barely” and "bearly,” both impossible to fully express yet impossible not to express. This contradictory tonal quality is central to my exploration of how Asian bodies are systematically misread within long Cold War contexts. This “itch” is not a deliberately cultivated obscurity, but a natural outpouring of lived experience, a state of malfunction in Asian bodies and languages during the long Cold War, a mode of being as sensitive and enduring as skin.
“Come! Rejoice! Time spills over endlessly!”
《熊译之痒》探索翻译的边界，在这里亚洲身体被系统性地误读，而我选择将这种被强加的难以理解性看作一种天然的不得不的抵抗。源自我祖父在河内作为电报专家的经历，我创造了一种电报式语法与身体经验的融合。“澡堂笔记（山寨版）”中的“touch.flow=good.hard”既隐藏又揭示，而“中国=荷兰”通过“中国=失败的孩子+爱”等方程式，呈现了在翻译过程中身份如何无法被完整传递，永远处于一种故障状态。
《消失点》以“我的高潮在哪里?”作为起点，探索缺失与消逝。20岁时母亲患癌的经历，成为我理解所有失落的隐喻——母亲的疾病即是母语的失声。在这种双重剥离中，我发现了翻译的本质：一种永远无法完全抵达，却必须执着尝试的对位关系。
“这几乎算不上战争，最几乎的战争。几乎地，几乎地。”——这句引言体现了《熊译之痒》的核心状态：徘徊在“几乎不是”与“熊般地是”之间，既不可能完全表达，又不可能不去表达。这种矛盾的语调正是本书探索亚洲身体如何在长期冷战语境中被系统性误读的关键。这种“瘙痒”并非刻意营造的晦涩，而是生活经验的自然流露，是漫长冷战中亚洲身体与语言的失调状态，是一种如肌肤般敏感而持久的存在方式。
“来啊！快活啊！反正有大把时光！”
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