Your absence, father, is nothing. It is nought—

父親，你的缺席，不算什麼。它是無——

The factor by which nothing will multiply,

是不會增加乘積的因數，

The gap of a dropped stitch, the needle’s eye

是漏掉的一個針腳，針眼

Weeping its black thread. It is the spot

為黑線哀哭。是鏡子上一塊烏斑

Blindly spreading behind the looking glass.

無端地擴張。

It is the startled silences that come

是冰箱停止嗡鳴後

When the refrigerator stops its hum,

可怕的寂靜，

And crickets pause to let the winter pass.

蟋蟀止步，給冬天讓路。

Your absence, father, is nothing—for it is

父親，你的缺席，不算什麼——它只是

Omega’s long last O, memory’s elision,

奧米伽終極的O，記憶省略了元音，

The fraction of impossible division,

是無法分割的分數，

The element I move through, emptiness,

是我從中走過的元素，虛無，

The void stars hang in, the interstice of lace,

是星星背面的空白，蕾絲上的鏤空，

The zero that still holds the sum in place.

是零，但依舊維持著總數的完整。

譯注：Sine Qua Non，拉丁語，意為「必要條件」；

Omega（大寫Ω，小寫ω），希臘字母表中最後一個字母，字面意思為「大O」，常指代事物的終結。