翻出去年做的那件織錦繡袍

Last year’s

袍子染上衣櫃的檀木薰香

cheong-sam

香氣淡淡滲出

from the closet scented with sandalwood,

一段舊日戀情的憶記

the gold brocade faintly redolent

衣上金絲繡線已略見黯褪

of an old romance, fading

迢遙的夜燈在風裏顫動

like distant lights trembling in wind.

是誰依依喚起你兒時的小名？

Who softly calls your nickname?

披上你的黑絨斗篷

In moonlight brittle as thirty years ago

月光薄脆，像三十年前的月光

throw on your black velvet cape

這夜你穿過起風的樹林

and pass tonight through a windy forest,

光枯的枝芽自樹幹伸出指爪

where black branches stretch their claws

撐開一個異鄉的殘冬天空

across the late winter sky of a foreign land.

你向樹林的更深處步進

Keep going toward the center of the woods,

草叢中小蟲窸窣

the tick of insects in the weeds

細碎如眾人私語竊竊

sharp as a crowd’s whispers, rasping

一個東方女子老去的傳奇

the legend of an old Asian woman,

枯藤似的手腕乾瘦不滿一握

her wrists withered vines too frail to grasp,

裙襬拖行野地露水盡濕

her dress hem soaked in forest dew.

村落燈火零星就要睡去

The scattered lamps of the village dim.

你一步一步走入夜的心臟

Step by step you enter night’s chamber.

樹林盡處全無人跡

The path vanishes in deep trees.

地老天荒你也還有這座舊墳

Till the end of heaven, you own this grave

墳前青苔逐隙而生

where moss enters every crevice.

麻石碑磨傷你的指尖，但你細細

Your fingertips brush its rough headstone,

撫摸，記否那個海上的月夜

recalling that night above the sea,

你如何撫摸情人結實的男體

full moon, your lover’s firm body

他壓你，你貼在鏡上

pressing you against the mirror,

背脊冰涼肉體觸手火燙

the flesh of your cold back scorching his touch.

曾是你情人的都已先你死去

Old lovers a thousand

屍骨盡在千里之外

li

蛆蟲和磷火此刻與你分享著愛情

off

你嘩聲垮下碎成一堆金粉

and dead long before you, you’re left

烈風刮起一場黃砂

to maggots and phosphorescence.

黃砂金粉鋪天蓋地灑下

When you crumble in a heap of golden dust

滿山遍野都是今日

the wind whirls up with sand, you’ll sift down

on everything, on fields, mountains,

on this one day that’s forever.