（圖片來自網絡）

我父親年輕時的畫像

眼睛裏帶著夢想 眉宇之間

印證著某些有關遙遠的記憶

嘴角展現出充沛的青春 是一種

不苟言笑的魅力

穿過裝飾的穗帶 

瘦削的華麗的軍服

是軍刀的手柄 上麵的兩隻手

仿佛蓄勢待發 卻又不知所終

現在他們幾乎看不見了 就像是

伸向了遠方 然後第一個消亡

其他的 都蒙上了麵紗 遮掩在自己的神秘之中

在自我的深處 消融

迅速消逝的銀板影像

在我會更晚一些消逝的手中……

PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER AS A YOUNG MAN

In the eyes: dream. The brow as if it could feel

something far off. Around the lips, a great

freshness—seductive, though there is no smile.

Under the rows of ornamental braid

on the slim Imperial officer's uniform:

the saber's basket-hilt. Both hands stay

folded upon it, going nowhere, calm

and now almost invisible, as if they

were the first to grasp the distance and dissolve.

And all the rest so curtained within itself,

so cloudy, that I cannot understand

this figure as it fades into the background—.

Oh quickly disappearing photograph

in my more slowly disappearing hand.

 (Translated by Stephen Mitchell)

PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER AS A YOUNG MAN

In the eyes dream. The brow as if in touch
with something far away. About the lips
immense youth, unsmiling seductiveness,
and across the full ornamental braids
of the slim aristocratic uniform
the saber’s basket-hilt and both the hands–
waiting, calmly, urged toward nothing.
And now scarcely visible: as if they would be
first, grasping the distant, to disappear.
And all the rest self-shrouded
and erased as if we didn’t understand
and by something deep in its own depths dimmed–.

O you swiftly fading daguerreotype
in my more slowly fading hands.

(Translated by Edward Snow )

PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER AS A YOUNG MAN

Dream in the eyes.  The brow as in relation

with something distant.  Mouth with more than the norm

Of youth, unsmilingly diffused temptation,

and, placed before the corded decoration

of the slim, gentlemanly uniform,

the sabre-hilt and those two hands, that stay

quiescent, – with no passionate intent.

And hardly to be seen now: as if they

were first to vanish, grasping the unscanned.

And all the rest in self-envelopment

and quenched as if we didn’t understand

https://mhsenglish10c.wordpress.com/2016/02/23/portrait-of-my-father-as-a-