Each evening you gaze in the southwest sky

每天夜裏你凝視西南方的天空

as a crescent extends in argentine light.

看月牙的銀輝逐漸拉長。

When the moon was new, your mind was

新月之時，你腦中

desireless, but now both wax to the world.

毫無慾望，而此刻，二者同時向世界盈滿。

While your neighbor’s field is cleared,

你鄰居的田地已經清理好，

your corner plot is strewn with desiccated

而你角落裏的一小塊地還遍佈著枯死的

sunflower stalks. You scrutinize the bare

葵花稈。你仔細查看光秃秃的

apricot limbs that have never set fruit,

從不結果的杏樹枝

the wisteria that has never blossomed,

和從不開花的紫藤，

and wince, hearing how, at New Year’s,

你的心刺痛，當你聽說新年之夜

teens bashed in a door and clubbed strangers.

有少年人闖進陌生人的房子肆意毆打。

Near a pond, someone kicks a dog out

池水邊，有人把狗從皮卡車上

of a pickup. Each second, a river edged

踢下去。兩岸結冰的河水

with ice shifts course. Last summer’s

每一秒都在變換水流。去夏

exposed tractor tire is nearly buried

曝露在外的拖拉機輪胎如今已

under silt. An owl lifts from a poplar,

埋進淤泥。貓頭鷹從白楊樹上起飛，

while the moon, no, the human mind

月亮，不，人的思緒

moves from brightest bright to darkest dark.

正在從至亮向至暗移動。