Decapitation
Decapitation, I learn from Shen Congwen
is purely technical work, a procedure
clean as an art form, and a good executioner
can lighten the suffering of a dying man
(a mountain of body, a blade of snow)
teaching us that struggle is useless, that there is no reason to fear
that your life does not truly belong to you, but to
the person holding the blade, and all you need to do is
“walk to the block, kneel, stick out your head
as far as possible, and wait for the blow to fall”
when the body becomes a bloody stump
the eyes bulge, as if about to fly out
and the executioner holds the head aloft, displaying it to the crowd
(giving the victim one final, clear look at the world?)
before wedging it between the legs of the body, to be carted away
sometimes someone gently shuts the eyes
sometimes it’s “one swift blow to the head – crack!
and one swift kick to the body, knocking it to the ground”
In 1949, Shen Congwen, who wrote these words
tried to slit his own throat, and in 263 AD
Ji Kang’s head fell from his neck
like a crescent moon over an autumn meadow
(Note: quotations are from Shen Congwen)
About the translators
Austin Woerner is a Creative Fellow in Chinese-English literary translation at the University of Leeds.
Chen Yushu is an MA student in Postcolonial Studies at the University of Leeds School of English.