Rome is a crimson war horse

羅馬是一匹螺紅色的絨馬，

you rode from under me, leaving me 

你從我胯下騎走它，留萬神殿的塵埃給我。

the dust of the Pantheon.

萬神殿，一隻雪白眼珠的內部，我靜靜出現，

Inside the Pantheon’s snow-white eyeball, silent

屬它無數瞳人中之一人。

beneath its gaze, I’m one of many.

雪與雪在天際搏鬥，飄落這巨大空蕩蕩的瞳孔，

Snow vies with snow on the horizon, entering this huge empty eye,

天際的雪閃著銀色的血斑，就是我剛剛失落的馬腹。

flashing silver blood spots, the horsebelly I just lost.

——你在何處，我親愛的大天使，

—Where are you, dear archangel,

千百萬對情人在羅馬飄雪的馬腹下取暖，

lovers by the million bask beneath the horsebelly as snow drifts over Rome.

請用你的劍光將那交媾之姿庇護——

Shield if you please that sexual pose with your sword’s light.

到最後，都是塵埃。

Dust in the end, all dust.

萬神殿用石塊講述塵埃，金碧的石料，

The stone blocks of the Pantheon speak for dust, these jade-gold stones,

人類在一己之外尚能探尋到的最堅固的空間。

the strongest dome we’ve dared above ourselves.

你知道東方易消弭的木頭，似乎同塵埃更相襯，

The wood of the east soon crumbles into dust,

卻往往作了塵埃的雕塑。

and then dust’s sculpture.

石料則以對塵埃的推擋詮釋塵埃，

Not yet dust, stone clarifies dust,

它是抗拒塵埃的雕塑，

just as sculpture, say Duchamp’s Large Glass,

就像杜尚的大玻璃。

stands before it.

則萬神殿是羅馬人向塵埃介紹自己的一個姿勢

——金風中迷目的羅馬人，要讓神靈這樣認識自己，

Having lost their way in a gilded wind 

穩厚，篤定，以此修建通往空靈之路，

the Pantheon is a posture 

以深明自我表達敬意，高速路上的靈燕。

for Romans to present themselves to dust, 

for the gods to see them so,

為大地撐起一座石的瞳孔，

sedate, honest, unhasty, building a path toward purity.

中空的、唯一的瞳仁，

Self-knowledge shows respect, like swallows on a high-speed road.

雨雪無聲撒入，

我們是那眼球內部

It erects for the whole planet a pupil of stone,

isolate in mid-air,

——原始黑暗的一羣。

addressed by rain and snow.

Inside its eye, we’re this crowd,

dark, primitive, barbaric.