What do you think of my new glasses

你们觉得我新眼镜如何？

I asked as I stood under a shade tree

我问，在一片树荫下

before the joined grave of my parents,

父母的合葬墓前

and what followed was a long silence

随之而来一段漫长的寂静，

that descended on the rows of the dead

笼罩着一排排逝者，

and on the fields and the woods beyond,

以及远处的田野和树林——

one of the one hundred kinds of silence

按中国人的说法

according to the Chinese belief,

寂静有一百种之多，

each one distinct from the others,

它们各个不同，

but the differences being so faint

其中的差异非常细微，

that only a few special monks

只有少数几位高僧

were able to tell them all apart.

才能将它们一一分辨清楚。

They make you look very scholarly,

它们让你看起来很博学。

I heard my mother say

我听到母亲说

once I lay down on the ground

当我躺倒在地

and pressed an ear into the soft grass.

一只耳朵贴进柔软的草丛时。

Then I rolled over and pressed

接着我翻身，

my other ear to the ground,

又将另一只耳朵贴向地面

the ear my father likes to speak into,

那是父亲喜欢对着说的一只，

but he would say nothing,

可他什么也不肯讲，

and I could not find a silence

在来自中国的一百种寂静中

among the 100 Chinese silences

我找不到任何一种寂静，

that would fit the one that he created

能与他发明的这一种相契合，

even though I was the one

尽管恰恰是我本人

who had just made up the business

刚刚杜撰了所谓

of the 100 Chinese silences-

一百种中国式寂静的说法——

the Silence of the Night Boat

那是夜船之寂

and the Silence of the Lotus,

莲花之寂，

cousin to the Silence of the Temple Bell

和寺钟之寂的表亲，

only deeper and softer, like petals, at its farthest edges.

然而更深沉、更柔和，如花瓣最毫末的边缘