One morning, my back against fallen branches

一天早晨，我背靠落枝

I write: hello, son of the desert,

寫一封私人信件：你好，沙漠之子

hello, dear fish fin.

你好，親愛的魚鰭

At noon I seal the letter,

到了中午，我把信封好

tie it to the wind’s neck. I trust wind

系在風的脖頸。我寧願相信風

more than homing-pigeons,

也不願相信信鴿，信鴿總是

their flocks all alike.

相似的，成群的

Wind’s alone, though not perfect.

風獨來獨往，可並不完美

Coming or going, it says only

每當它路過或只是到達，它總會說

Ah, I’m here.

哦，我來了

Hello, grass root.

你好，草根

Hello, middle-aged woman out of work.

你好，失業的中年女人

My room is a wooden chair with broken legs.

我的房間是一把斷腿的木椅

I stand, even at night.

我只能站著，即使在黑夜

My city’s pieced together from copies.

我住的城市則是一些拼湊起來的

The truth is

複制品。我看到的實情是：

everyone’s starving, yet all

人人都在鬧饑荒，人人都做出

walk around with pot bellies,

飽餐饜足大腹便便的樣子

pretending they’re well-fed.

當我從夜裏醒來，我像一支鋼筆

When I wake in the dark

浸泡在夜的濃墨裏——

I’m a pen dipped in night’s thick ink.

僅僅寫信，就要繞許多圈子

Writing a letter, I have to get past many difficulties:

我必須繞過被老鼠咬壞的

mouse-gnawed envelopes,

信封，潮濕的郵票，

damp stamps,

和極易寫錯的漢字

words I easily miswrite.

我已經注意到，一封沒有錯別字的信

I’ve noticed: a letter, even without mistakes or misspellings,

並不能使一個地址

can’t easily or safely

更悠閑，或更健康

compose its own address.