有燈光，但是黯淡

In the dim light

照得人人臉孔蠟黃

every face is wax

儘管窗外陽光光燦

though the sun outside shines brilliant.

老教授白髮如銀

The old professor’s hair is silver,

年輕的助教黑髮豐茂

his young assistant’s richly black.

在中年講師禿頂的頭皮

On the bald head of the lecturer

反射出的六十燭光下

the rows of lights reflect

學者們濟濟一堂討論

like candles. Scholars discuss

漢代墓葬內埋藏的竹簡古籍

these Han tombs’ bamboo books.

緊閉大門的會議室氣息侷悶

Tight-shut door, stale air, easy to imagine

我想像在入地三尺的古墓槨室裏

the burial chamber three

一疊疊竹片堆積，只有黑暗

chi

閱讀那些飽含先秦智慧的文句，只有文句

down,

才懂得竹片上斑駁的刻痕

stacks of bamboo strips, only darkness

歲月在封墓的一刻便陷入黑暗沉沉睡去

reading pre-Qin wisdom, their words

空氣中氫氧氦各自凝滯

odd snicks on bamboo.

拒絕在死屍的鼻孔肺囊之間出入

The moment the tomb sealed, time sank

into night and deep slumber,

又是多少年？盜墓人一鋤

the oxygen, nitrogen gone foul

掘破了幾千年死寂

in the corpses’ nostrils and lungs.

刺眼的陽光隨即射入

空氣與黑暗尖叫一聲

Two thousand years’ silence

嘶地從破口消解逸失

till the graverobber’s spade

cracks a dazzle of sunlight,

會議室內各人穩坐如古鐘

dead air and darkness hissing out.

蠟黃的臉依然蠟黃

出土的古籍殘卷近來如何？

We sit in the room, steady as ancient bells,

二三十年來始終沒有發表

our faces still wax. For thirty years

有些學者霸著材料不肯外放

the texts unpublished,

有些學者老死後殘卷再度不知所終

some hoarded by the living,

some vanished with the dead.

燈泡與燈泡打賭

助教烏黑的濃髪，再幾十年後

Will the assistant’s sable hair

變成老教授的銀髮

silver in the decades

或是講師的禿髮？

or go bald? How soon,

（現在不可預測

like tomb lamps,

終歸是其中一種）

his once-bright eyes will dim.

曾經晶亮的眼睛

最終也將熄滅如封墓後的燭光

Bamboo strips and fine silk

moulder into dust for wind.

竹簡縑帛風化後粉末隨風散去

The sun’s already slipped behind the hills.

一陣討論後太陽已經落山

In the dusky sky, swallows weave,

黃昏裏燕子來去的飛過

inscribing unreadable characters.

像在天空寫上沒人懂得的文字