In the dim light

有燈光，但是黯淡

every face is wax

照得人人臉孔蠟黃

though the sun outside shines brilliant.

儘管窗外陽光光燦

The old professor’s hair is silver,

老教授白髮如銀

his young assistant’s richly black.

年輕的助教黑髮豐茂

On the bald head of the lecturer

在中年講師禿頂的頭皮

the rows of lights reflect

反射出的六十燭光下

like candles. Scholars discuss

學者們濟濟一堂討論

these Han tombs’ bamboo books.

漢代墓葬內埋藏的竹簡古籍

Tight-shut door, stale air, easy to imagine

緊閉大門的會議室氣息侷悶

the burial chamber three

我想像在入地三尺的古墓槨室裏

chi

一疊疊竹片堆積，只有黑暗

down,

閱讀那些飽含先秦智慧的文句，只有文句

stacks of bamboo strips, only darkness

才懂得竹片上斑駁的刻痕

reading pre-Qin wisdom, their words

歲月在封墓的一刻便陷入黑暗沉沉睡去

odd snicks on bamboo.

空氣中氫氧氦各自凝滯

The moment the tomb sealed, time sank

拒絕在死屍的鼻孔肺囊之間出入

into night and deep slumber,

the oxygen, nitrogen gone foul

又是多少年？盜墓人一鋤

in the corpses’ nostrils and lungs.

掘破了幾千年死寂

刺眼的陽光隨即射入

Two thousand years’ silence

空氣與黑暗尖叫一聲

till the graverobber’s spade

嘶地從破口消解逸失

cracks a dazzle of sunlight,

dead air and darkness hissing out.

會議室內各人穩坐如古鐘

蠟黃的臉依然蠟黃

We sit in the room, steady as ancient bells,

出土的古籍殘卷近來如何？

our faces still wax. For thirty years

二三十年來始終沒有發表

the texts unpublished,

有些學者霸著材料不肯外放

some hoarded by the living,

有些學者老死後殘卷再度不知所終

some vanished with the dead.

燈泡與燈泡打賭

Will the assistant’s sable hair

助教烏黑的濃髪，再幾十年後

silver in the decades

變成老教授的銀髮

or go bald? How soon,

或是講師的禿髮？

like tomb lamps,

（現在不可預測

his once-bright eyes will dim.

終歸是其中一種）

曾經晶亮的眼睛

Bamboo strips and fine silk

最終也將熄滅如封墓後的燭光

moulder into dust for wind.

The sun’s already slipped behind the hills.

竹簡縑帛風化後粉末隨風散去

In the dusky sky, swallows weave,

一陣討論後太陽已經落山

inscribing unreadable characters.

黃昏裏燕子來去的飛過

像在天空寫上沒人懂得的文字