每天夜裏你凝視西南方的天空

Each evening you gaze in the southwest sky

看月牙的銀輝逐漸拉長。

as a crescent extends in argentine light.

新月之時，你腦中

When the moon was new, your mind was

毫無慾望，而此刻，二者同時向世界盈滿。

desireless, but now both wax to the world.

你鄰居的田地已經清理好，

While your neighbor’s field is cleared,

而你角落裏的一小塊地還遍佈著枯死的

your corner plot is strewn with desiccated

葵花稈。你仔細查看光秃秃的

sunflower stalks. You scrutinize the bare

從不結果的杏樹枝

apricot limbs that have never set fruit,

和從不開花的紫藤，

the wisteria that has never blossomed,

你的心刺痛，當你聽說新年之夜

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

有少年人闖進陌生人的房子肆意毆打。

teens bashed in a door and clubbed strangers.

池水邊，有人把狗從皮卡車上

Near a pond, someone kicks a dog out

踢下去。兩岸結冰的河水

of a pickup. Each second, a river edged

每一秒都在變換水流。去夏

with ice shifts course. Last summer’s

曝露在外的拖拉機輪胎如今已

exposed tractor tire is nearly buried

埋進淤泥。貓頭鷹從白楊樹上起飛，

under silt. An owl lifts from a poplar,

月亮，不，人的思緒

while the moon, no, the human mind

正在從至亮向至暗移動。

moves from brightest bright to darkest dark.