AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

We treat each other with exceeding courtesy;
we say, it's great to see you after all these years.


Our tigers drink milk.
Our hawks tread the ground.
Our sharks have all drowned.
Our wolves yawn beyond the open cage.


Our snakes have shed their lightning,
our apes their flights of fancy,
our peacocks have renounced their plumes.
The bats flew out of our hair long ago.


We fall silent in mid-sentence,
all smiles, past help.
Our humans
don't know how to talk to one another.


不期而遇

我們彼此客套寒暄，
並說這是多年後難得的重逢。

我們的老虎啜飲牛奶。
我們的鷹隼行走於地面。
我們的鯊魚溺斃水中。
我們的野狼在開著的籠前打呵欠。

我們的毒蛇已褪盡閃電，
猴子——靈感，孔雀——羽毛。
蝙蝠——距今已久——已飛離我們髮間。

在交談中途我們啞然以對，
無可奈何地微笑。
我們的人
無話可說。

譯注：此詩借大自然動物的意象，精準有力、超然動人地道出老友相逢卻見當年豪情壯志被歲月消蝕殆盡的無奈，
以及離久情疏的生命況味。