你们觉得我新眼镜如何？

What do you think of my new glasses

我问，在一片树荫下

I asked as I stood under a shade tree

父母的合葬墓前

before the joined grave of my parents,

随之而来一段漫长的寂静，

and what followed was a long silence

笼罩着一排排逝者，

that descended on the rows of the dead

以及远处的田野和树林——

and on the fields and the woods beyond,

按中国人的说法

one of the one hundred kinds of silence

寂静有一百种之多，

according to the Chinese belief,

它们各个不同，

each one distinct from the others,

其中的差异非常细微，

but the differences being so faint

只有少数几位高僧

that only a few special monks

才能将它们一一分辨清楚。

were able to tell them all apart.

它们让你看起来很博学。

They make you look very scholarly,

我听到母亲说

I heard my mother say

当我躺倒在地

once I lay down on the ground

一只耳朵贴进柔软的草丛时。

and pressed an ear into the soft grass.

接着我翻身，

Then I rolled over and pressed

又将另一只耳朵贴向地面

my other ear to the ground,

那是父亲喜欢对着说的一只，

the ear my father likes to speak into,

可他什么也不肯讲，

but he would say nothing,

在来自中国的一百种寂静中

and I could not find a silence

我找不到任何一种寂静，

among the 100 Chinese silences

能与他发明的这一种相契合，

that would fit the one that he created

尽管恰恰是我本人

even though I was the one

刚刚杜撰了所谓

who had just made up the business

一百种中国式寂静的说法——

of the 100 Chinese silences-

那是夜船之寂

the Silence of the Night Boat

莲花之寂，

and the Silence of the Lotus,

和寺钟之寂的表亲，

cousin to the Silence of the Temple Bell

然而更深沉、更柔和，如花瓣最毫末的边缘

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