In the tent by the foot of Mount Tai, you composed
在泰山下的帳篷裏，你寫下
The Pisan Cantos
《比薩詩章》。過泰山側時
. Beside its slopes
孔子必定探望過你了，春秋無義戰
Confucius must have come to you.
墨索里尼是什麼東西，過而能改，善莫大焉
Spring and Autumn period had no righteous wars.
Mussolini counted for nothing.
你曾是一條叛國的龍，被囚禁在
No greater good than amending one’s faults.
勞改營，鐵枝蓋搭的猩猩籠
你的姓氏是龐德，龐的形象是龍
A dragon of treason, caged in a camp,
厂是房屋一類的建築，像石巖
your ape’s roost all iron-boughed.
Pangde
你在籠裏，與雨雲風露為伍
,龐德,your family name, a dragon in its first character
陪伴你的是蜘蛛、蜥蜴和馬蜂
coiled beneath chang,厂, a lean-to, sheltering rock.
營外的白牛，黑獄外的陽光
電線杆上的鳥，在樂譜上舞蹈
In your cage, clouds, wind, rain and dew for housemates;
spiders, lizards, wasps your accompanists.
學而時習之的「習」字，在你眼中
White ox past the camp, sunlight past jail gloom,
幻成時光之白翼，飛翔而過
birds on the phone wires, stepping to some tune.
東方的形象，西方的表意
美麗的錯誤，全新的詮釋學
Practice and learn—the Chinese
xi
搬進帳篷后，你有了小床、紙張
,習,
你只有一本中文詞典和一冊《書經》
spread in your eyes its white wings of time,
你在包裝箱上憑藉不滅的記憶寫詩
soaring image of the east, ideogram of the west,
但丁那樣，從地獄寫到天堂
this beguiling error a whole new hermeneutics.
你博學如阿根廷圖書館長，你的詩行
At last in a tent, your cot, your pages,
如同十個嘴巴搶著輪唱，令人
one Chinese dictionary and the
驚訝又迷惑，意象的玉片，串成金縷衣
Shujing
詩人絮語才是你的心
.
On a desk of cobbled crates
龐德是你的姓氏，德的部首是彳
you wrought poems from deep memory,
走路的意思，彳亍在十字街頭的詩人
like Dante, hell to heaven.
你用十隻眼睛橫眉看世界，以一顆
中庸慕道的心建設地上的樂園
Erudite as the Argentine librarian, lines
strive like ten mouths chanting rounds:
杏花從遠方飄進你的胸懷
dazzling, deluding, chunks of green jade sewn to a gold-stitched robe,
沒有孔子，你的衣襟會開向左邊嗎？
in your heart the poet’s ceaseless ramble.
高山仰止，在他那樣的白色裏
我們還能添加什麼白色？
Pangde
your family name, the radical of
de
being
chi
,彳,
for walking: a poet pacing the intersection,
ten scowling eyes to see the world,
your golden mean in homage to the
Dao
,
Eden raised on earth.
From far off, apricot blossoms drift onto your shoulders.
Without Confucius, would your shirt have opened to the left?
At the peak of the tallest mountain, its pure crown,
what whiteness could we add?