Today 天
I don’t remember a thing ® ̄«°©ÁG
Today 天
I remember B©Á
Pissing the day away on the Internet 在 ̧G整天
3
Today 天
Is ́
The 4thof June 6 月 4 ̈
Today 天
Is ́
The 4thof June 2005 2005 ¦的 6 月 4 ̈
Today 天
I pissed the day away on the Internet 在 ̧G整天
But not ° ́在
In a chatroom
Chatrooms
Are like spittoons B @
Spit out 吐
A mouthful of phlegm
Then leave Btvü
4
Today 天
Is ́
The 4thof June 6 月 4 ̈
Today 天
Is ́
The 4thof June 2005 2005 ¦的 6 月 4 ̈
Today 天
Is not ° ́
The 4thof June 1989 1989 ¦的 6 月 4 ̈
Today 天
Was entirely spent «在
Playing games
(Blue Butterfly Purple Lilac)
This handling of the June 4 topic is notable for linguistic reasons.
Aware of the taboo on the mere mention of this date on the Internet,
much less in polite conversation, the poet’s repetition of it becomes
something of a mantra that effectively reduces the date to a seemingly
harmless game. Yet, in the context of the discourse field of CCP-
dominated China and its Internet, this can be regarded as both
212 Michael Day