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它是否存在於煤礦工人無煙煤般的臉上，

Is it in the anthracite face of a coal miner,

是否在煉鋼工的脈管和肺葉中

crystalized in the veins and lungs of a steel

結晶，是否為火車司爐工髒污的手上附著的塵屑？

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

它是否存在於一個孩童對一顆星星的命名，存在於

Is it in a child naming a star, coconuts washing

沖刷上岸的椰子，格蘭河沿岸火山的休眠？

ashore, dormant in a volcano along the Rio Grande?

即使你遊歷尼羅河四千英里

You can travel the four thousand miles of the Nile

溯其源頭依然尋不到它。

to its source and never find it.

即使你翻越喜馬拉雅五座高峰

You can climb the five highest peaks of the Himalayas

依然認不出它。

and never recognize it.

你透過超大望遠鏡注目凝視

You can gaze through the largest telescope

卻怎麽也看不到。

and never see it.

但它就在你肺部的毛細血管裏

But it’s in the capillaries of your lungs.

在你切開的兩片檸檬之間。

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

在恆河岸邊火葬的屍骨中，

It’s in a corpse burning on the Ganges,

是雨水從香蕉葉上濺落。

in rain splashing on banana leaves.

或許只有瀕臨死亡

Perhaps you have to know you are about to die

你才渴望它。只有獨自一人

to hunger for it. Perhaps you have to go

走入叢林唯一根長矛護身

alone into the jungle armed with a spear

你才確鑿地看見它。或許你必須

to truly see it. Perhaps you have to

染上肺炎才會感受到它的壓迫。

have pneumonia to sense its crush.

然而它存在於時鐘上指針的剪切。

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

存在於一只陀螺旋進的姿態

It’s in the precessing motion of a top

當力矩施加於轉軸繪出錐形軌跡：

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

旋轉的圓錐頂點凝聚起

and the cone spinning on a point gathers

過去，現在，未來。

past, present, future.