Gregory Pardlo was born in Philadelphia in 1968. His first book, Totem, received the American Poetry Review/Honickman Prize in 2007. In 2015, he was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Digest.

格里高利-帕德罗于1968年出生于美国费城。他的第一本诗集《图腾》获2007年美国诗歌评论/何尼克曼奖。2015年，他因诗集《摘要》获普利策诗歌奖。

冯冬，1979年生于重庆，南京大学英文系博士毕业，现任教于暨南大学，译有《未来是一只灰色海鸥：西尔维娅?普拉斯诗全集》（2013）、小说《蛛网与磐石》（2011）、游记《中华帝国纪行》（2006）等，在海内外诗刊发表作品，与友合著诗集《残酷的乌鸦》（2011），主要研究诗歌、精神分析和当代哲学。

Peter Feng was born in Chongqing, China, in 1979. He has received a Ph.D degree in literature from Nanjing University and currently teaches English at Jinan University. He has translated The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (2013), The Web and the Rock (2011), A Journey through the Chinese Empire (2006), and co-written a book of poems: Cruel Raven (2011). His study includes poetry, psychoanalysis, and contemporary philosophy.

Written by Himself

为自己而作

I was born in minutes in a roadside kitchen a skillet
whispering my name. I was born to rainwater and lye;
I was born across the river where I
was borrowed with clothespins, a harrow tooth,
broadsides sewn in my shoes. I returned, though
it please you, through no fault of my own,
pockets filled with coffee grounds and eggshells.
I was born still and superstitious; I bore an unexpected burden.
I gave birth, I gave blessing, I gave rise to suspicion.
I was born abandoned outdoors in the heat-shaped air,
air drifting like spirits and old windows.
I was born a fraction and a cipher and a ledger entry;
I was an index of first lines when I was born.
I was born waist-deep stubborn in the water crying
        ain't I a woman and a brother I was born
to this hall of mirrors, this horror movie I was
born with a prologue of references, pursued
by mosquitoes and thieves, I was born passing
off the problem of the twentieth century: I was born.
I read minds before I could read fishes and loaves;
I walked a piece of the way alone before I was born.
			

几分钟内，我诞生于一个街边厨房，一把煎锅
低语我的名字。我诞生于雨水与碱液；
我诞生于那条河，在那里有人
借给我晾衣夹，一只耙齿，
我的鞋上缝着谩骂。我回来了，口袋里
装满咖啡渣和鸡蛋壳，这让你高兴
虽然不是我的错。尽管如此
我还是出生了，头脑迷信；承受额外的负担。
我给与生命，给与祝福，给人怀疑我的机会。
我生下来就被扔给门外热浪翻滚的空气，
那气息漂浮如幽灵，如破败的窗户。
我生下来就是个小数，一个零，一个账户目录；
生下来我就是首行索引。
我出生时齐腰陷在水里，固执地哭喊
      难道我不是女人不是兄弟，我出生于
这镜子大厅，这恐怖电影，我出生时
拖着参考文献的序，被蚊子
和小偷一路追赶，我诞生于对
二十世纪问题的回避：我诞生了。
我会读心，在我会读“鱼”和“面包”之前；
我诞生之前，已独自走过那一段路。