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1
Loving trees and stones: the root of all ethics.
熱愛樹木和石頭：道德的最低限度。
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2
The Age advances, and at dusk more girls appear, with tinted hair, beckoning from the roadside. Why not pull over? What have you left to be proud of? Do you really think your noble soul, compared to one of their combs, is more enduring?
時代在進步，傍晚時分在路邊招手的染髮女孩也多了起來。為什麼你不把車停
下？你還有什麼可驕傲的？難道你高貴的靈魂真的會比一把她們的梳子更為不
3
朽？
Though the wine lies heavy on your mind, forgotten wounds stab sharper than a spike.
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4
葡萄酒沉睡在你的頭腦裏，而忘卻的痛苦有時比一枚釘子尖銳。
Someday you’ll recall the little restaurant buzzing with flies on the edge of Beijing: how we sat gazing at the glorious lights of the far-off Hilton, seeing for the first time how humiliation smites the destitute.
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5
終有一天，你會憶起京郊的那家蒼蠅亂飛的小餐館：坐在那裏，望著遠處希爾頓
Airport shut down, a blizzard madly filling in the sea; no homecoming, but one kind of dialogue, grown difficult.
大飯店頂層的輝煌燈火，你第一次知道了什麼叫做對貧苦人類的侮辱。
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5
Those who know how to live in deep cold save a plot of earth in the yard to sow sunflowers.
機場關閉，暴風雪仍在發瘋地填著大海；不是回家，而是一種對話變得更困難了。
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6
Time to take down your ex-lover’s painting, but under the eye of the new mistress of the house, where can you put it?
那些已知道在嚴寒中生活是怎麼一回事的人，將從院子裏騰出一小塊地來，種上
他們的向日葵。
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Having lived from then till now, belief is hard, but disbelief is terror.
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是到了從牆上取下從前女友的畫的時候了，但，在新女主人投來的目光中，該把
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它放在何處呢？
Gold corn mouldering, crops rotting in the field. Old man on the doorstep, staring in the soft autumn rain. What makes you turn from bitter glances? Why are you always ashamed to write poems about fruitless human labor?
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10
活到今天，要去信仰是困難的，而不去信仰是可怕的。
If a donkey claims he’s a Great Poet, you bow solemnly, for this is The Land of Poetry.
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發黴的金黃玉米，爛在地裏的莊稼，在綿綿秋雨中坐在門口發楞的老人。為什麼你要避開他們眼中的辛酸？為什麼你總是羞於在你的詩中訴說人類的徒勞？
As you grow old, that first thin gleam of scorn in your son’s eyes comes like an undeserved gift on a long awaited holiday.
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12
如果一頭驢子說牠是偉大詩人，你要肅然起敬，因為這是在一個詩的國度。
This is the music I love, coughs from the audience as the master performs: I resume my seat in darkness.
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當你變老，開始接受兒子眼中那一絲譏諷的眼光，就像在一個等待已久的節日裏，卻得到一份最不應有的禮物。
It’s not that you’re any older; your mirror’s just grown dim.
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14
我喜歡聽這樣的音樂，在大師的演奏中總是響起幾聲聽眾的咳嗽：它使我重又在黑暗中坐下。
It’s not that you’re any older; dining alone just takes longer.
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15
不是你老了，而是你的鏡子變暗了。
It’s not that the hometown girls are loose; just that the sailor back from the storm went blind long ago.
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不是你在變老，而是你獨自用餐的時間變長了。
Daily you polish your room’s pine floor. To prepare for life with a barefoot angel who never appears? There is no angel. From a corner of your ceiling descends a fat spider.
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不是家鄉的女人不貞，而是那個在風暴中歸來的水手已瞎了多年。
You arise in the morning and listen to the organ, at dusk the violin, and evening the piano; but awakened at night, you hear unending silence.
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你每天都在擦拭著房間裏的松木地板，是為了和你的永不降臨的赤足天使生活在
Restoring faith in life is like stamping your feet in winter; warmth returns, then you stride off further in the snow.
一起？沒有天使。在你的牆角上方，一隻大蜘蛛下凡。
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Years since your last trip to the zoo: she’s still drawn to the Hall of Snakes, but as you no longer wish to see tigers or swans, you head straight for Monkey Hill, thronged with children.
早上起來聽管風琴，黃昏時聽小提琴，晚上聽鋼琴；而在夜半醒來後，你聽到的，
是這無邊的寂靜。
20
When his lifetime of writing is finished like a term of hard labor, I think he’ll step from the room and look far away, murmuring to himself: Child, now I feel the sun’s warmth, and from your garden hear your daughter’s laughter.
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再一次獲得對生活的確信，就像一個在冰雪中用力跺腳的人，在溫暖自己後，又大步向更遠處的雪走去。
trans. © Diana Shi & George O’Connell
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多年之後重遊動物園：她仍一如既往地迷戀於蛇館，而你想看到的已不再是老虎或天鵝，現在，你走向被孩子們圍住的猴山。
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當他像苦役犯一樣完成這一生的寫作，我想他將走出屋子，對著遠方這樣喃喃自語地說：孩子，現在，我可以感受到溫暖的陽光了，我可以聽到從你的花園裏傳來的你的女兒的笑聲了……