Sounding stones,

石磬

an instrument I favor.

是我喜歡的一種樂器

These a set

我所遇見的石磬

from Spring and Autumn period,

是石編磬

made in the city Ying,

春秋時代

so the family name is Chu.

生於郢

On their grey-green skin,

所以姓楚

ghosts of painted phoenix.

灰青色的肌膚上

Near Huayuankou,

有隱約的彩繪鳳紋

they dwell in a museum.

住在

We’d come to view the tripod cauldron,

花園口附近

the calyx and tripod goblet,

一所博物館裏

not knowing

我們本來是去看鼎

the sounding stones were there.

看盂看爵

Then I saw them,

我可不知道

short and long,

磬也在那裏

their gently curved, bowing forms

直到看見它

pendant as hung sculpture,

短短又長長

one cord

倨句微弧的形狀

strung through angled tops.

由一根長索

As for the tri-colored camel,

貫串曲頂的圓孔

the bronze mirror of flowers and birds,

懸起來

the wine vessel carved with dragons,

好像動態的雕塑

the white porcelain,

對於

I ignored them all.

三彩駱駝

花鳥銅鏡

Under the same roof,

龍紋尊

a stone lion, stone rhino,

白陶砵

infantry, generals of the Qin Emperor,

我就通通不管了

and from the Zhao Mausoleum

fine majestic horses

在博物館裏

sleeping deep

我還看見石獅石犀牛

amid clay pots, huge boulders,

秦皇的步兵和將領

never to awaken.

昭陵赫赫的駿馬

A horde of fashioned lives,

他們都在巨石陶土中

mouths

慢慢沉睡

that cannot speak,

不再醒來

legs

複製的生命羣

powerless to run.

即使有嘴

But these sounding stones—

不會說話

listen:

有腿

you may conceive

也沒有能力奔跑了

a spare court dance

improvised from the moment,

衹有磬

this chime of earth’s and heaven’s breath

你聽

singing its own

你甚至可以看到

clear south concordia,

它即興時候

distant, ancient, tunneling

樸素的文舞

all the way from the Warring States,

這天地的風鈴

young and immutable.

長歌它自己

朗朗鬱穆的南音

How strange,

湮遠而又古老

mere stones.

透過戰國的隧道

仍然那麼

年輕

真奇怪

不過是幾塊石頭罷了