Fragments of Angel's Maps - a prose-poem / Sebastian Ysz-kit Yim

A
Everybody is here, having a worldly, speedy yet tragic-comic party: men and women, boys and girls, buyers and sellers, walkers, loners, strangers, the exploiter and the exploited. But he is not one of them. An outsider. He cannot figure out why, he simply isn’t - confidently and assuredly the angel spreads his wings . . .

B
flying . . . singing . . . dancing . . . moving . . . remembering . . .

再見銅鑼灣 / Wayne Wong

曾經，在喧鬧的銅鑼灣
虛度了好些日子。只有十六歲的我
握著新力的 MD Walkman
從時代廣場的鐘樓到維多利亞公園
在人與光影的急流中
隨心地挑了一首
以音樂和想象力細讀城市的平凡：

一對因為吵架而沒有過斑馬線的情侶
幾個打扮鮮艷的菲傭在自制的夏威夷布景板前拍照
一群亢奮地參與〈城市論壇〉的維園阿伯
和頭上寫著「耶穌愛你」的艷紅色大型燈箱

一切都在音樂的調配下成了mise-en-scène
鏡頭遠遠超越我的所見
剪接往往於毫秒間完成
於無盡的自編自導自演中
拍出一部部充滿 enchantment 的 MV
靠的是永恒和瞬間之間的感動
無律可循，也無跡可尋
我的少年就在這樣的白日夢中渡過

現在，我失去了想像的興致
卻換來一張淡紫色的學生證
從前因失學而遊蕩的深紫色月台
被賦予了實在的理由，原因和目的
結識了馬克思，尼采和 Derrida
卻遺忘了王家衛
或許，生活就是一個失去浪漫的過程
被 disenchanted 的不是銅鑼灣
而是我那雙「鏡頭」：

世貿巨型液晶屏幕裏的新聞報道
停泊在柏寧酒店外的保時捷
和回到薄扶林的31號小巴

The Man who Keeps Movie Tickets / Kelly Chun-laam Ma

It was a lovely evening, with a delicious dinner, an interesting conversation with a friend, and a good movie. On his way home he listened to his iPod, letting his own thoughts take him wherever they wanted. He took the elevator, walked through the hallway and opened the door to his apartment. Lights were turned on, and earphones were taken off. The music was still loud and clear enough.

Instead of taking off his coats and shoes or checking the messages, he went straight into his bedroom, and switched on his computer and scanner swiftly. Everything’s ready – he got his wallet from one of the pockets on his coat, and slowly took out the movie ticket that he kept, the ticket of Departures which he saw a few hours ago at AMC Festival Walk, and put it on the scanner. After a few seconds an image of the ticket was seen on the computer screen, and he saved the file, so that he could keep a soft copy of the movie ticket.

與桂華逛街 / Sylvia Lok-wan Ng

我牽著你走到人來人往的街中
你看著店舖前的人龍，問
他們是否為了輪水而排隊

我看得入了神
幽靈一般的他們提著剛添置的手袋
皮袋上的花紋跟滿足的笑臉一樣公式化
排著最前頭的幽靈打開了袋
鬆開了水龍頭
清涼的水哇啦哇啦地注滿了神聖的容器

你說，你再也聽不見從前的笑聲
假日的街道
因為被幽靈霸佔了而變得寧靜
你眼中只有搖晃的影像
他們走得太快，而你看得太慢

你說，你唯一能看清的是從前的風景
但幽靈供給的養份令大廈只能長高
歲月定格在發黃的照片
我反覆默唸你的一字一句
也無法拼湊成完整的故事

我牽著你，在幽靈之間穿插
就如你曾經牽著我走過緩慢的長街

(20090324)

The Bright Eyes in City / Ellen Sin-tung Lau

In an empty tram, on a freezing night,
Her sparkling eyes look up to the sky,
But gliding ghosts shimmer across her eyes,
She views only the fluorescent shines.

With frames of windows and grids of tram wires,
Her sky is fragmented into hundreds of pies,
But lines become easel and magic brushes arise,
Van Gogh revives, paints Starry Night in her mind.

Inside a tidy room, in a tall building among skyscrapers,
Her slander body peacefully leans on a huge Nutcracker,
She sights Jardine’s outlook through the transparent glass,
But scenery is eclipsed by the blocks of high-classes.

With high-rise buildings and rays from the windows,
Her mountain is covered with lights and shadows,
But they become spotlights setting in a grand theatre,
Ballerina appears, dances with the Christmas Nutcrackers.

Speedy, bounded and packed modern city,
Sights and feelings are framed, what a pity!
But billions of eyes, peep out amid the sky,
Hopes and imaginations arrive time by time.

Enchantments appear with their bright, shiny eyes.

Ellen Sin-tung Lau is a student from CLIT2018 Critiques of Modernity 2008-2009 second semester.

merry merry-go-round / Kelly Ying-nga Tse

fly. flew. flown. the balloons. amidst the big jocund boom
the Ocean Park at 8:27 dusk or dawn
the colours who is flirting, frisking, frolicking with
the amplified speed of musical sounds

the memory of the merry-go-round . . .

you muttered to my locket (did you not?) for new photos.
i had given you, i murmured to your queer eye (oh dear left or right?), the new photos.
you tittered: by new photos, you meant photos taken with my
new (it was your ‘new’) Nokia cell.
i taunted: those photos were taken with my
new (it was my ‘new’) Nokia cell.

no sweet surrender. ne’er. ne’er.

the balloons. caught in the uphill of Eason’s ferris wheel. flicker. flitter. flutter.
outside Pacific Coffee, perchance at the other end of
the Pacific Ocean. 12:18. when time was
long. time was wrong at who and who’s playground

still the memory of the merry-go-round . . .

i spoke to your perfume (transparent or indifferent?): how do you fancy
Yuan of Half a Life?
you nodded or shook your head: I’m not an aficionado of pseudo-romantic plights . . .
the metamorphosis of your mouth, the curve of which cared
naught.
gone was the pulse, gone was the beat, gone was
love’s sublimated heat. hereafter or
ne’er ever after.
your melancholic perfume, my not-so-fragrant spleen.

the balloons. fall. fell. fallen. pregnant with old tunes.
9:19 the velocity of Central’s escalators,
who are lifted to the Peak of Bauhinia? who are
drawn to the abyss of the bygone past?

still the silent memory of the merry-go-round . . . 

you basked in the mellow, which was the string of your guitar. apathetic you were to
the string of my heart’s chamber
you chortled (you always did)
          I scorned
you smoked
          I sighed (alas!)

round the marred merry-go-round. the balloons of
lost times. lost paradise.
round the marred merry-go-round. i am but a
circus clown (attired in memories of four pounds):
‘Merry merry-go-round!’

Kelly Ying-nga Tse is a student from CLIT2018 Critiques of Modernity 2008-2009 second semester.

Spiral Dreams 漩渦 / Shirley Wing-yan Lai

在天氣晴朗的春天，落日的陽光使中山階染上了一片橙黃色，令人感覺到何謂「夕陽無限好，只是近黃昏」。

在中山階上，小凝拉住子健的手說﹕『今晚可以跟你、阿雪和文偉到賽西湖的別墅，好期待啊!』

子健嘴角微微上揚說﹕『你興奮得像一個期待學校旅行的小孩……』突然，子健的手提電話響了﹕『喂! 張教授，是……是……好，無問題……那麼，待會見。』