1
1
紅櫟樹的葉子在風中摩挲。
Red oak leaves rustle in the wind.
在夢中，你夢見片片樹葉
Inside a dream, you dream the leaves
散落土上，你知道
scattered on dirt, and feel it
這是你命中巧合的
as an instance of the chance configuration
佈局。一整夜有紅色的馬
to your life. All night you feel
在你血液中疾馳，
red horses galloping in your blood,
你聽到一聲尖鋭的警報，突然
hear a piercing siren, and are in love
與這費解的世界相愛。你走向
with the inexplicable. You walk
你的車子，發現危險警示燈
to your car, find the hazard lights
閃爍不停：你找到一把生銹的刀，一條鱒魚，
blinking: find a rust-brown knife, a trout,
你手上握著砸爛的小提琴。
a smashed violin in your hands.
你醒來時依然在夢裏，
And then you wake, inside the dream,
看見橘子無聲地成熟。
to find tangerines ripening in the silence.
你剝開夢的層葉
You peel the leaves of the dream
就像剝開洋蔥的表皮。
as you would peel the leaves off an onion.
夢的層衣沒有果心，
The layers of the dream have no core,
沒有實質。你在自己身上
no essence. You find a tattoo of
找到一隻紅蠍子紋身。
a red scorpion on your body.
你只是笑了一下，在霜凍中打顫，
You simply laugh, shiver in the frost,
然後轉身走回這世界。
and step back into the world.
2
2
一隻加拉巴哥象龜
A Galápagos turtle has nothing to do
與微中子的世界毫無關聯。
with the world of the neutrino.
加拉巴哥群島的生態
The ecology of the Galápagos Islands
與一把剪刀毫無關聯。
has nothing to do with a pair of scissors.
窗邊的一盆仙人掌
The cactus by the window has nothing to do
與輪子的發明毫無關聯。
with the invention of the wheel.
望遠鏡的發明
The invention of the telescope
與一隻紅色美洲豹毫無關聯。
has nothing to do with a red jaguar.
不。剪刀的發明
No. The invention of the scissors
與望遠鏡的發明息息相關。
has everything to do with the invention of the telescope.
一張世界地圖
A map of the world has everything to do
與一盆窗邊的仙人掌息息相關。
with the cactus by the window.
夸克的世界
The world of the quark has everything to do
與夜間逡巡的美洲豹息息相關。
with a jaguar circling in the night.
一個男人舍棄自我面對坦克車
The man who sacrifices himself and throws a Molotov
投出一枚燃燒瓶
cocktail at a tank has everything to do
與一棵躬身向陽的葵花息息相關。
with a sunflower that bends to the light.
3
3
打開窗戶碰一碰陽光，
Open a window and touch the sun,
或摸一摸被雨水淋濕的泛閃的楓葉。
or feel the wet maple leaves flicker in the rain.
透過清水看藍蟹倉皇游走，
Watch a blue crab scuttle in clear water,
或在沙土裏掘出一隻掩埋的海星。
or find a starfish in the dirt.
向色盲者描述綠色，
Describe the color green to the colorblind,
或用痛苦修葺一座房屋。
or build a house out of pain.
世界永遠始料未及。
The world is more than you surmise.
拿松樹來說，墨緑，接受光的斧鑿，
Take the pines, green-black, slashed by light,
風的蝕刻，從一座島嶼
etched by wind, on the island
坐望入海口的沖潮。
across the riptide body of water.
請向一位眼盲的塔拉烏馬拉白化病人
Describe the thousand iridescent needles
描述那一千枚針葉尖頂的虹彩。
to a blind albino Tarahumara.
氣泡室裏，磁場中，
In a bubble chamber, in a magnetic field,
一粒電子向中心畫著螺旋，
an electron spirals and spirals in to the center,
但世界遠遠超過這單純的舞蹈：
but the world is more than such a dance:
螺旋向內一切回到起源，
a spiraling in to the point of origin,
螺旋向外形成一片
a spiraling out in the form of a
潮濕的葉子，一隻藍蟹，一座綠房子。
wet leaf, a blue crab, or a green house.
4
4
熱浪蕩漾著仙人掌。
The heat ripples ripple the cactus.
停車場碾碎的綠玻璃
Crushed green glass in a parking lot
和一堆犀牛骨
or a pile of rhinoceros bones
同樣釋放熱量，你或許無緣察覺。
give off heat, though you might not notice it.
一顆恆星的熱可依照
The heat of a star can be measured
光譜分類，但思維的熱
under a spectrometer, but not
不可，吳哥窟的熱亦不可。
the heat of the mind, or the heat of Angkor Wat.
但吳哥窟的瓦礫
And the rubble of Angkor Wat
散發熱；夜晚開放的杏花
gives off heat; so do apricot blossoms
也是如此，還有綠魚，黑竹，
in the night, green fish, black bamboo,
雪中垂釣的漁人。
or a fisherman fishing in the snow.
一埃米的差距可將愉悅
And an angstrom of shift turns the pleasure
轉化為痛苦。那奪走你指紋的冰
into pain. The ice that rips the fingerprint
同樣具有熱量；
off your hand gives off heat;
我們每一刻的生存亦不例外。
and so does each moment of existence.
一枚鮮紅的葉在泥土中瓦解，
A red red leaf, disintegrating in the dirt,
熱量媲美乙炔的火焰。
burns with the heat of an acetylene flame.
而那土坯房的鐵皮屋頂
And the heat rippling off
波動的熱氣
the tin roof of the adobe house
正如你親眼所見。
is simply the heat you see.
5
5
一把瓜奈里小提琴的秘密是什麽？
What is the secret to a Guarneri violin?
從靛青色染缸裏撈起來的羊毛
Wool dipped in an indigo bath turns bluer
遇空氣氧化後更加靛藍。世人
when it oxidizes in the air. Marat is
對馬拉的看法已今非昔比。
changed in the minds of the living.
豪飲一杯龍舌蘭關乎南極洲
A shot of tequila is related to Antarctica
的萎縮。酒吧裏一隻烏鴉和冰上一條笛鯛
shrinking. A crow in a bar or red snapper on ice
關乎十二音列
is related to the twelve-tone method
作曲法。為一架定音鼓調音
of composition. And what does the tuning of tympani
會否波及你頭髮的氣味？
have to do with the smell of your hair?
三十歲，你深知你已行之至此——
To feel, at thirty, you have come this far—
你看到門上方的鈴鐺即一扇門
to see a bell over a door as a bell
上方的鈴鐺，你充分體會到
over a door, to feel the care and precision
這把小提琴的關照和精確，還有那
of this violin is no mistake, nor is the
維持你熱情的誠摯和顫慄。
sincerity and shudder of passion by which you live.
6
6
壓碎一個蘋果，壓碎一種可能性。
Crush an apple, crush a possibility.
世界無法被單一秩序描述；
No single method can describe the world;
於是有樂趣
therein is the pleasure
生於混亂，生於思維的跳躍。
of chaos, of leaps in the mind.
一個人癱倒在律師的辦公桌前
A man slumped over a desk in an attorney’s office
是一條被海草圍困的鸚哥魚。
is a parrot fish caught in a seaweed mass.
一個在吧檯邊攀談的人
A man who turns to the conversation in a bar
是一隻叼著香菸的扁鰺。
is a bluefish hooked on a cigarette.
一個失業木匠的慾望以及慾望的毀滅
Is the desire and collapse of desire in an unemployed carpenter
是否一尾鮭魚溯流而上的本能？
the instinct of salmon to leap upstream?
桉樹的氣味會否收編為
The smell of eucalyptus can be incorporated
攻擊理論的一種？
into a theory of aggression.
一張全像術形成的干擾圖形
The pattern of interference in a hologram
可以複製一個蘋果，一把刀，桌上的一盆木賊，
replicates the apple, knife, horsetails on the table,
它濾掉了視覺的混亂，聚焦
but misses the sense of chaos, distorts
也是一種扭曲。那麽請
in its singular view. Then
觸摸，發光，跳舞，歌唱，在，成為，在。
touch, shine, dance, sing, be, becoming, be.