父親，你的缺席，不算什麼。它是無——

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

是不會增加乘積的因數，

The factor by which nothing will multiply,

是漏掉的一個針腳，針眼

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

為黑線哀哭。是鏡子上一塊烏斑

Weeping its black thread. It is the spot

無端地擴張。

Blindly spreading behind the looking glass.

是冰箱停止嗡鳴後

It is the startled silences that come

可怕的寂靜，

When the refrigerator stops its hum,

蟋蟀止步，給冬天讓路。

And crickets pause to let the winter pass.

父親，你的缺席，不算什麼——它只是

Your absence, father, is nothing—for it is

奧米伽終極的O，記憶省略了元音，

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

是無法分割的分數，

The fraction of impossible division,

是我從中走過的元素，虛無，

The element I move through, emptiness,

是星星背面的空白，蕾絲上的鏤空，

The void stars hang in, the interstice of lace,

是零，但依舊維持著總數的完整。

The zero that still holds the sum in place.

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。