Wei Luo’s Poetry and Prokofiev 2nd Concerto

20 February 2023

Wei Luo's journey of poetry started with her love for composer Prokofiev, whom she first performed at age 11 and fascinated by its complexity and unique tone. Wei dedicated and published in Chinese several sets of poetry to Prokofiev.

Meanwhile, she performs the tremendously powerful yet difficult Prokofiev 2nd piano concerto which inspired her to create the following poem. On March 4th, 5th and 11th, she appears with the Quad City symphony, Springfield Symphony under the baton of Maestro Mark Russell Smith.

 

Spirit and Flesh

We are the same soul
One body
beneath two fragments

My voice
Your thoughts
Your music notes
are my mask
I'm at the bottomless black precipice
gathering your fear
Grief is pierced through
I am bleeding

You are wearing night's cloak
and you cover me
in the rainstorm
Under the cloak, I have
the right to cry as loudly as I please

I get lost on
the other shore of your sound waves
The colors of your harmonies
have given the rainbow
a reason to leave the sky
Wandering soul
Accelerated rhythms
have been shattered into fragments
of an unreconciled corpse
trembling
in the residual ashes

The one—
kneeling under the gun muzzle giving off heat
screaming in terror in the bathtub
losing their voice in anger
sunken into indulgent bliss
gnawed at by owls in the night—
still hangs from the castle gate

Who
took
evil
furious
misshapen
seeds of death
and sprinkled them
across this wasteland
Sprinkled them toward the creek where fish scales once shimmered
Who dresses oneself with warm blood
Who murders infants with the curved moon
Who inserts putrid flowers all across the horizon
Who is the sun holding in its hands

Listen
White and black keys are whispering
infinite and finite extensions
They're your imposing arms
my hopelessness
bursting the dykes
in your dried up ocean

In your remaining breath
I'm carefully piecing together your appearance
separated by the distance of light
I see a complete self

Because of you
I am no longer a meaningless existence
I am no longer a phantom drifting in an unknown country

I am born
I silently declare

 

中文原文：

灵与肉

我们是同一个灵魂
两个碎片下的
肉体

我的声音
你的思绪
你的音符
是我的面具
我在无底的黑色悬崖
收集着你的恐惧
悲痛被刺穿
我鲜血淋漓

你身着夜的斗篷
将我覆盖
暴雨中
披风下的我
有了放声哭泣的权利

我迷失在
你声波的彼岸
你和声的颜色
给了彩虹
一个离开天空的意义
游荡的灵
被加速的节奏
粉碎成了一片一片
不甘的尸体
颤抖
在残余的灰烬

在冒着热气的枪口下屈膝的
在浴缸里惊恐嚎叫着的
在愤怒中失声的
在纵欲极乐中沉沦的
夜里被猫头鹰啃食的那一个
还悬挂在城堡的大门上

是谁
将
邪恶
狂怒
畸形
死亡的种子
洒满了这片荒芜
洒向了曾经鱼鳞闪烁的小溪
用温热血液梳妆的是谁
弯月屠杀婴儿的是谁
将地平线插满腥臭的花朵
太阳握在手心的人
又是谁

听
白键和黑键正窃窃私语
无限与有限的延伸
是你伟岸的臂膀
我的无望
在你早已干涸的海洋
轰然决堤

在你遗留的气息里
我小心拼凑着你的模样
隔着光的距离
我却看见了完整的自己

因为你
我不再是一个无意义的存在
我不再似某个飘荡在不知名国度的幽灵

我诞生
无声的宣言