Four in the morning

The hour from night to day
The hour from side to side
The hour for those past thirty

The hour swept clean to the crowing of cocks
The hour when erath betrays us.
The hour when wind blows from extingusihed stars.
The hour of and-what-if-nothing remains-after us.

The hollow hour
Blank, empty
The very pit of all other hours

No one feels good at four in the morning
If ants feel good at four in the morning-three cheers for the ants.
And let five o'clock come if we're to go on living.

抓住詩的尾巴

When she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the field. She would like feel and hear a poem coming after her from over landscape, like thunderness train of air and would come bearing down on her over the landscape. She felt the coming. It was like shake the earth under her feet. She knew she only has one thing to do at that point. She ‘s like run like hell to the house. She’s been chased by the poem. She has to get a piece of paper and pen fast enough so when the thunder through her she can collect it and grab it on the page, and other times, she wouldn’t be fast enough, she would be running and running and she wouldn’t get the house, the poem would like trundle through her, she would miss it, and it would continue on to cross the landscape and looking for another poet. There’s a moment when she was almost miss it, she would be running to house, she’s looking for a piece of paper, and the poem passing through her. She grasp a pencil, just it’s going through, she would reach out another hand, and she would catch it, she would catch the poem by its tail, she would pull it backward into her body, transcribing on the pages. The poem would come up on the page perfect and intact, but backward, from the last word to the first.

http://dxmonline.com/html/V10/mainList.aspx?ObjKind=ted >> 點選"與天才攜手合作"
原影片連結：http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

What You Said

What You Said

I have always thought
That what I touch I can have

Being lovers meant we could feel
each other’s flesh without permission.

Being separate was different
from alone. You said I had the face

of an angel, but I know
there are angels better than me.

I thought what made me separate
was the way I could see smoke rising

from a lamp—if looked long enough
I could see your right hip, the bone

pronounced in the light. I move
in a room I have made less

and less comfortable. I’ve taken
the curtains down to try and make

sense of what you said about wanting,
having and losing—all the same thing.

You said it was because of time
that we feel them in different stages.

Is this time too slow?
If I touch my calf right now, notice

The true color of my skin, lift my hand,
Is it all the same moment?

If I see myself in the window,
What have I lost?
--Mary Cross

這首詩是我的指導教授 Mary 在1990年出版, 我認同: 詩是無法翻譯, 當你讀翻譯時, 其實你也一起讀進了譯者的生活體驗, 這裡我想說說,我透過這首詩看到的風景—
你說過, 我總是在想, 我可以感覺到我擁有的, 我們在一起的時候, 不需要任何話語,就可以感受到真實的彼此, 2個人分開不代表能回到一個人的時候, 你說, 我有一顆善良的心, 而我知道, 在你身邊有許多比我善良的人, 我靜靜看著桌上的燈, 在光影中看到你 , 聽到你, 我住進一間越來越難過的房間, 我拉開窗簾, 試著了解你說過的, 曾經有過的渴望, 擁有, 失去, 其實都是一樣的, 你說, 因為時間讓我們不一樣了, 是我的時間太慢, 如果我再試著找回對你真實的感受, 對你伸出手, 我們能再回到當初嗎? 如果我看見窗子反射的自己, 那我到底失去了什麼

我想, 我的老師如果懂中文, 她一定會跳過窗來澄清, 這首詩應該有更多解釋想像空間, 我特別喜歡這段,”Is this time too slow? If I touch my calf right now, notice the true color of my skin, lift my hand, Is it all the same moment?” 就已經 “too slow”了, 你才 開始 “touch”…….. 就算你急得說了 “ right now”, 然後才 “notice” …….最後” lift “ , 緊張地舉高你的手, 太慢了, 再也招不回那已經走的遠遠的愛人背影 （所以, 注意英文裡的動詞, 不只說明動作, 還有隱藏的時間線索 )

If I see myself in the window, what have I lost? 最後這句, 漂亮的結束, 我實在翻不出來, 就像我很難描述玉山的日出有多美, 非得親自走一趟, 才能體會經過長途跋涉, 歷經等待, 日出的那一刻, 才會想哭…..以前我的國中英文老師要我很快背一篇課文, 快快爬上山頂, 我的詩人老師總是要我停下來, 想想這個字, 看看路邊的風景, 學另一種語言, 其實是多一種觀看世界的角度, 多一種面對生活的態度, 如果還沒感受到不同的風景, 別急, 專心腳步, 堅持往前走, 我的老師是這麼說的, 繼續往前走！

詩選【重陽—西西】

抽一枝煙吧，父親
讓我為你
點火。讓我為你
拂去身上的灰塵
頭上這株扁柏
比清明時節
好像又粗獷了些
清風掠過
仍撒落你遍體落英哩
你在這裡，別來
無恙嗎。帶來的白菊
還喜歡嗎

母親身子衰弱
依舊不能來看你
家中各人，均安好
請勿掛念
我，也好
我有ㄧ羣
美麗的朋友
我們總在一起
做些
看來徒勞，或者仍有意義
卑微的工作
今天是重陽
也是一位朋友的
生辰，晚上
我們將會
重聚首，共把酒。

人們說
向你鞠躬的時候
有什麼心裡話
可以對你細說
有什麼心願
可以向你祈求
我該向你祈求什麼?
如果天下，有
不散的筵席
請賜我們
不散的筵席
但願
人長久
抽一枝煙吧，父親
你真的不用為我
擔憂
我活得很好
而且
快樂
喜歡喝薄荷酒
朋友為我
去買薄荷酒
喜歡看書
朋友為我找來
我想看的書
我怕冷
朋友給我穿風衣
你看，父親
我美麗的朋友
他們都像你
待我好

＊回來去醫院看了阿公，我說，我在芝加哥做了一本小書關於我們。爸爸為了我一直生病，在你的田裡裝的一把土，陪我去了紐約、芝加哥，他們說，這樣我就不會水土不服。 我把書和土裝進盒子裡，放在你床邊。他們問是啥，我說這是我和你的祕密。說我們的故事，排好的字句ㄧ直跌倒，斷斷續續不能成行，多了很多時間一個人在深夜的studio，反覆對你說話。輕輕對你說，我回來看你了，把我們美好的時光陪你，你會沒事的。你緊緊握住我，我們一起開心的哭了。

關於詩＃1＿上邪

漢樂府詩〈上邪〉是我念書時記得的詩， 那種對愛的堅決，此生都要與君相知相惜，一開始即對天宣誓，你若不信，除非天地合一，才敢和此君分離。

上邪！
我欲與君相知
長命無絕衰
山無稜 江水為竭
冬雷震震 夏雨雪
天地合
乃敢與君絕

後來有許多作家延伸改寫，我喜歡這首

〈上邪〉陳義芝

她準備了一包乾糧兩瓶礦泉水
在我遠行的行囊裡哀愁地說
南方多地震
我怕劫後挖出我的身體
水已乾糧已腐
就在一塊殘瓦上刻了天地合三個字
留給她

我對你說過的，我並沒有忘記
我對天發的誓
這一生都要你相知相守
你眼裡的不捨和依戀，我知道你記得的
即使天地無情，不能與你共這一生
仍將這最後的掛念留下，讓它守護著你