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Is it in the anthracite face of a coal miner,

它是否存在於煤礦工人無煙煤般的臉上，

crystalized in the veins and lungs of a steel

是否在煉鋼工的脈管和肺葉中

worker, pulverized in the grimy hands of a railroad engineer?

結晶，是否為火車司爐工髒污的手上附著的塵屑？

Is it in a child naming a star, coconuts washing

它是否存在於一個孩童對一顆星星的命名，存在於

ashore, dormant in a volcano along the Rio Grande?

沖刷上岸的椰子，格蘭河沿岸火山的休眠？

You can travel the four thousand miles of the Nile

即使你遊歷尼羅河四千英里

to its source and never find it.

溯其源頭依然尋不到它。

You can climb the five highest peaks of the Himalayas

即使你翻越喜馬拉雅五座高峰

and never recognize it.

依然認不出它。

You can gaze through the largest telescope

你透過超大望遠鏡注目凝視

and never see it.

卻怎麽也看不到。

But it’s in the capillaries of your lungs.

但它就在你肺部的毛細血管裏

It’s in the space as you slice open a lemon.

在你切開的兩片檸檬之間。

It’s in a corpse burning on the Ganges,

在恆河岸邊火葬的屍骨中，

in rain splashing on banana leaves.

是雨水從香蕉葉上濺落。

Perhaps you have to know you are about to die

或許只有瀕臨死亡

to hunger for it. Perhaps you have to go

你才渴望它。只有獨自一人

alone into the jungle armed with a spear

走入叢林唯一根長矛護身

to truly see it. Perhaps you have to

你才確鑿地看見它。或許你必須

have pneumonia to sense its crush.

染上肺炎才會感受到它的壓迫。

But it’s also in the scissor hands of a clock.

然而它存在於時鐘上指針的剪切。

It’s in the precessing motion of a top

存在於一只陀螺旋進的姿態

when a torque makes the axis of rotation describe a cone:

當力矩施加於轉軸繪出錐形軌跡：

and the cone spinning on a point gathers

旋轉的圓錐頂點凝聚起

past, present, future.

過去，現在，未來。