Hsilo Bridge
Loomingly, the soul of steel remains awake.
Serious silence clangs.
Over the Hsilo Plain sea winds wildy shake
This design of strength, this scheme of beauty; they shake
Every nerve of this tower of will,
Howling and yelling desperately.
Still the teeth of nails bite, the claws of iron rails clench
A serious silence.
Then my soul awakes; I know
I shall be different once across
From what on this side I am; I know
The man across can never come back
To the man before the crossing.
Yet Fate from a mysterious center radiates
A thousand arms to greet me; I must cross the bridge.
Facing the corridor to another world,
I tremble a little.
But the raw wind over the Hsilo Plain
Blows against me with the tidings
That on the other side is the sea.
I tremble a little, but I
Must cross the bridge.
And tall looms the massive silence,
And awake is the soul of steel
西螺大橋
矗然，鋼的靈魂醒著
嚴肅的靜鏗鏘著
西螺平原的海風猛撼著這座
力的圖案，美的網，猛撼著這座
意志之塔的每一根神經
猛撼著，而且絕望地嘯著
而鐵釘的齒緊緊咬著，鐵臂的手緊緊握著
嚴肅的靜
於是，我的靈魂也醒了，我知道
既渡的我將異於
未渡的我，我知道
彼岸的我不能復原為
此岸的我
但命運自神祕的一點伸過來
一千條歡迎的臂，我必須渡河
面臨通向另一個世界的
走廊，我微微地顫抖
但西螺平原的壯闊的風
迎面撲來，告我以海在彼端
我微微地顫抖，但是我
必須渡河
矗立著，龐大的沉沒
醒著，鋼的靈魂Seven Layers Beneath
The wind now ebbs among the pines. The sun sets
West of the Civil War. Only snow garrisons the frontier.
Thin are the bald branches, like starved nerves of the ear.
In the chilled hush the shrubs are listening.
At sunset, the ill-tempered crow in the birch trees
Begins to curse, in dissonant blasphemies,
General Sedgwick with the broken sword.
Startled and strained are the statued ears.
Featured are the rocks; masks hide behind masks.
Soon the cold fog will rise, and under the biotite sky
The dews will nibble the marrow of the guns
In the rusted silence where mildew creeps.
After the war asleep are the stains of blood.
Mute are the bugles, mute the neighing horses that shied.
After the war the vastness of a battlefield
Is listening to a lone, late crow.
Then Sirius rises from between teeth of battlements.
The weighty sense of Time cumulated falls
On my fatigued collar bone. Also falls
The night, slippery down my icy face.
Softly I tread. Softly, on seven layers of autumn dead,
Seven layers of leaves, crisp and sobbing beneath the shoes,
Till trod and broken lie all the heart-shaped designs,
All the insistences and futilities.
WISDOM SURVIVES PASSION. Ah, exile roaming thebattlefield,
There is no past for you, no, not a bit.
New Continent is still too new, past there’s none for you.
Your past is west of the sunset, west of it.
─Devil’s Den, Gettysburg
七層下
一時松風退濤，落日在內戰以西
殘雪兀自封鎖著邊界
禿柯瘦成聽覺的神經
肅然的寒氣中，灌木叢在傾聽
日落時，壞脾氣的烏鴉
在那邊的樺樹林中咒罵
罵米德將軍斷劍的雕像
百里內，驚動多少耳朵
怪石如顏，鬼面之後有鬼面
不久冷霧泛起，夜空下
露滴侵食鐵砲的骨髓
鏽青了的寂滅中，爬著綠霉
內戰之後，血斑皆酣然
酣然，銅號，酣然，失蹄的嘶馬
內戰之後，一整幅戰場
在靜聽一隻遲歸的鴉
天狼在雉堞的齒隙升起
累積的時間感，全部的重量
向肩胛骨最痠處壓下
夜色瀉下，沿著誰的冰頰
踏。 踏七層死去的秋
七層枯脆在履底悲泣
踏碎一些心形的圖案
一些多情的執著，一些徒然
太上無情。 古戰場的浪子啊
你沒有什麼往事，沒有一星星
新大陸太新，沒有你的往事
往事在落日以西，唉，以西
──蓋提斯堡戰場魔鬼穴Smoke Hole Cavern
Pre-historic virgin night devours us,
Such a headless, tailless darkness
Before our life and after our death,
Where, subterranean, blind, cold,
Gargles the trickle of a stream.
We grope upstream along the Lethe
To find the mountain’s appendix lead
Nowhere, vaguely aware the sun and moon
Are left revolving somewhere outside.
In whose hand a flashlight
In vain tries to push aside
The impenetrability of it all,
Where a whim-dream has fossilized
Reefs of coral under our feet
And candelabra overhead?
So stalactites fall and stalagmites rise:
So slowly grow Creation’s beards.
An inch’s fall, an inch’s rise
While outside, rise and fall the dynasties.
Eternity’s where they never meet.
Eternity, Eternity! How I wish
I could breathe to the petal of an ear:
“love me just the fraction of an inch
And I’ll love you half a yard.” Bell
And bamboo shoot, in this sarcophagus.
A century ago the Confederates,
The guide says, here hid their gold.
And much, much earlier than that,
A feathered and painted Indian chief
Roasted his venison in the cave.
Rocks have their music too, he says
And beats them up and down
And beats them left and right
And upon such a subtle sculpture
Strikes up a pop tune of the Stone Age.
─Smoke Hole Cavern, West Virginia
鐘乳巖
史前的童貞夜嚥下了我們
無首無尾的黑暗
生之前，死之後
冰澗漱著細細的地下水
捫到冥川上游
山的盲腸不通向何方
日月都留在洞外
誰的手中一枝電筒
撥也撥不開的深邃
髣髴凝固的夢境
腳下是珊瑚叢
千盞琳琅是吊燈
石乳下降，石筍上升
盤古的白鬚緩緩地長著
千載一釐，萬載一分
升降之間虛懸著永恆
向一隻耳朵噓氣：永恆，永恆
誰能愛我三分
我便愛誰半寸，不腐的石槨中
你是鐘，我是筍
百年前，南軍在洞裏藏金
嚮導說，更早更早以前
戴羽繪面的紅酋長
在洞口薰炙鹿肉
岩石也有音樂啊，他說
且揚杖擊石
向玲玲瓏瓏的雕塑敲起
石器時代的流行樂
──西佛吉尼亞．煙洞巖
Loomingly, the soul of steel remains awake.
Serious silence clangs.
Over the Hsilo Plain sea winds wildy shake
This design of strength, this scheme of beauty; they shake
Every nerve of this tower of will,
Howling and yelling desperately.
Still the teeth of nails bite, the claws of iron rails clench
A serious silence.
Then my soul awakes; I know
I shall be different once across
From what on this side I am; I know
The man across can never come back
To the man before the crossing.
Yet Fate from a mysterious center radiates
A thousand arms to greet me; I must cross the bridge.
Facing the corridor to another world,
I tremble a little.
But the raw wind over the Hsilo Plain
Blows against me with the tidings
That on the other side is the sea.
I tremble a little, but I
Must cross the bridge.
And tall looms the massive silence,
And awake is the soul of steel
西螺大橋
矗然，鋼的靈魂醒著
嚴肅的靜鏗鏘著
西螺平原的海風猛撼著這座
力的圖案，美的網，猛撼著這座
意志之塔的每一根神經
猛撼著，而且絕望地嘯著
而鐵釘的齒緊緊咬著，鐵臂的手緊緊握著
嚴肅的靜
於是，我的靈魂也醒了，我知道
既渡的我將異於
未渡的我，我知道
彼岸的我不能復原為
此岸的我
但命運自神祕的一點伸過來
一千條歡迎的臂，我必須渡河
面臨通向另一個世界的
走廊，我微微地顫抖
但西螺平原的壯闊的風
迎面撲來，告我以海在彼端
我微微地顫抖，但是我
必須渡河
矗立著，龐大的沉沒
醒著，鋼的靈魂Seven Layers Beneath
The wind now ebbs among the pines. The sun sets
West of the Civil War. Only snow garrisons the frontier.
Thin are the bald branches, like starved nerves of the ear.
In the chilled hush the shrubs are listening.
At sunset, the ill-tempered crow in the birch trees
Begins to curse, in dissonant blasphemies,
General Sedgwick with the broken sword.
Startled and strained are the statued ears.
Featured are the rocks; masks hide behind masks.
Soon the cold fog will rise, and under the biotite sky
The dews will nibble the marrow of the guns
In the rusted silence where mildew creeps.
After the war asleep are the stains of blood.
Mute are the bugles, mute the neighing horses that shied.
After the war the vastness of a battlefield
Is listening to a lone, late crow.
Then Sirius rises from between teeth of battlements.
The weighty sense of Time cumulated falls
On my fatigued collar bone. Also falls
The night, slippery down my icy face.
Softly I tread. Softly, on seven layers of autumn dead,
Seven layers of leaves, crisp and sobbing beneath the shoes,
Till trod and broken lie all the heart-shaped designs,
All the insistences and futilities.
WISDOM SURVIVES PASSION. Ah, exile roaming thebattlefield,
There is no past for you, no, not a bit.
New Continent is still too new, past there’s none for you.
Your past is west of the sunset, west of it.
─Devil’s Den, Gettysburg
七層下
一時松風退濤，落日在內戰以西
殘雪兀自封鎖著邊界
禿柯瘦成聽覺的神經
肅然的寒氣中，灌木叢在傾聽
日落時，壞脾氣的烏鴉
在那邊的樺樹林中咒罵
罵米德將軍斷劍的雕像
百里內，驚動多少耳朵
怪石如顏，鬼面之後有鬼面
不久冷霧泛起，夜空下
露滴侵食鐵砲的骨髓
鏽青了的寂滅中，爬著綠霉
內戰之後，血斑皆酣然
酣然，銅號，酣然，失蹄的嘶馬
內戰之後，一整幅戰場
在靜聽一隻遲歸的鴉
天狼在雉堞的齒隙升起
累積的時間感，全部的重量
向肩胛骨最痠處壓下
夜色瀉下，沿著誰的冰頰
踏。 踏七層死去的秋
七層枯脆在履底悲泣
踏碎一些心形的圖案
一些多情的執著，一些徒然
太上無情。 古戰場的浪子啊
你沒有什麼往事，沒有一星星
新大陸太新，沒有你的往事
往事在落日以西，唉，以西
──蓋提斯堡戰場魔鬼穴Smoke Hole Cavern
Pre-historic virgin night devours us,
Such a headless, tailless darkness
Before our life and after our death,
Where, subterranean, blind, cold,
Gargles the trickle of a stream.
We grope upstream along the Lethe
To find the mountain’s appendix lead
Nowhere, vaguely aware the sun and moon
Are left revolving somewhere outside.
In whose hand a flashlight
In vain tries to push aside
The impenetrability of it all,
Where a whim-dream has fossilized
Reefs of coral under our feet
And candelabra overhead?
So stalactites fall and stalagmites rise:
So slowly grow Creation’s beards.
An inch’s fall, an inch’s rise
While outside, rise and fall the dynasties.
Eternity’s where they never meet.
Eternity, Eternity! How I wish
I could breathe to the petal of an ear:
“love me just the fraction of an inch
And I’ll love you half a yard.” Bell
And bamboo shoot, in this sarcophagus.
A century ago the Confederates,
The guide says, here hid their gold.
And much, much earlier than that,
A feathered and painted Indian chief
Roasted his venison in the cave.
Rocks have their music too, he says
And beats them up and down
And beats them left and right
And upon such a subtle sculpture
Strikes up a pop tune of the Stone Age.
─Smoke Hole Cavern, West Virginia
鐘乳巖
史前的童貞夜嚥下了我們
無首無尾的黑暗
生之前，死之後
冰澗漱著細細的地下水
捫到冥川上游
山的盲腸不通向何方
日月都留在洞外
誰的手中一枝電筒
撥也撥不開的深邃
髣髴凝固的夢境
腳下是珊瑚叢
千盞琳琅是吊燈
石乳下降，石筍上升
盤古的白鬚緩緩地長著
千載一釐，萬載一分
升降之間虛懸著永恆
向一隻耳朵噓氣：永恆，永恆
誰能愛我三分
我便愛誰半寸，不腐的石槨中
你是鐘，我是筍
百年前，南軍在洞裏藏金
嚮導說，更早更早以前
戴羽繪面的紅酋長
在洞口薰炙鹿肉
岩石也有音樂啊，他說
且揚杖擊石
向玲玲瓏瓏的雕塑敲起
石器時代的流行樂
──西佛吉尼亞．煙洞巖
