[原創英文詩自譯]哦，大河(Oh, Great River)

哦，大河


年長幾歲半夜從睡夢中坐起

汗流浹背的習慣似有好轉

隻是偶爾在淩晨會出現

雙手抱頭莫名重擊的情景


“大河斷水了！”


斷水之夢初現時

就有隱隱作痛之感

可歎的是我竟喜好感受

這不斷擴散不斷尖刻的痛楚


千年曆史溶入我們的血流

大河奔流理所當然，畢竟

那狂野的交響樂裏有過我們的歌聲

受到鼓舞，我們扯開嗓子放聲唱啊

張開所有的毛孔，四肢伸展

讓靈魂與精神一起漂流

任生命之翼上下翻飛

我們謾罵過也讚美過啊

那令人靈感紛飛的活力和氣概

我們在粗獷的濤聲裏大聲歡笑

我們在天翻地覆的洪水裏痛哭流涕

誕生在他寬厚的臂彎裏

死時化成他的浪花一朵

我們愛過，我們恨過，我們來了又去了

亙古不變的惟有大河奔流，世代不息

這大河從一開始便主宰著

我們生存還是毀滅的理由

那桀傲不馴賦予我們粗獷和文明

是啊，這一切真的既怪誕又奇妙



隻是我們誰也沒有想到誰也沒有夢到

這牽心掛腸的巨流有一天會突然斷絕！

這不，這一天來了，就在今天

我們被遺棄了，隻會瑟瑟發抖呀

這世上還有誰能賦予我們情感，理智和激情？

我們還會在一個端藐裏同時看到希望感受絕望嗎？

還會有那麽一輩子有恃無恐卻又惶恐不安的日子嗎？

我們還能活的既麵子十足又能傲慢自大麽？


哦，大河，我們手拉著你

就象一幫孩子圍著一位麵無表情的父親

您可以打我們罵我們，但千萬不能

讓我們幹癟了，愚鈍了，失去幽默，沒有生機了呀

千萬不能讓我們絕望

明天原本不複存在的呀！



可是，您決定停流了

倒吸一口涼氣，巨人般轟然倒下

那一陣子抽搐，那令人掩麵的喘息哪！

如今我們每個人即使肯死千次萬次

將您換回，可您不回來了

永不複返，永不複返了哪！


河床象巨大的瘡疤

沙塵暴飛揚跋扈甚囂塵上

枯草團在風裏翻卷哭號

全世界的淚水從此枯竭了

我們這些大河曾經氣鼓鼓的抱怨者

這會兒啞巴了。真沒承想

幹癟了的人會可憐成如此模樣



用不了很久了，人們便不再記得

這裏曾經流淌過一條大河

那條曾經給過我們活力和想象力的大河哦

大聲大氣地歡騰在這顆曾經綠色的星球

充滿過生機和情感的星球哦。用不了很久了


1999年8月1-3日

[譯自home.pacbell.net/nxliu/, 英文標題為"Oh, Great River.”]

---

Oh, Great River

As we age, the nasty habit of sitting up in the middle of the night
with sweat running down one's spine seems to be fading away
Now only once in a while I find myself
holding my head up in both hands in darkness
the wee hours of the morning
absorbing the impact of the irrelevant

"The great river has stopped!"

The dream of this stoppage of water flow of the great river
first came on to me as a pain rather dull
The worst part of it is that I seem to enjoy such an agony
It sharpens as it expands on.

Millennia have dissolved into our blood line
We've taken the flow of the great river for granted
We sing in the wild symphony
We feel encouraged to let go our voices
All of our pores open, limps free
Soul and spirit floating
Our entire existence flies high and low
We curse and praise the inspirational vigor and spirit
We laugh with the rude roar and cry in shipwrecking flood
We live in the great arms and die to become the flow
We love, we hate, we come and we go, the only constant
Is the great river and its magnificent flow
Since time eternal the great river is the reason
for us to be and not to be
Both strange and wondrous that its unruliness
makes us wild and civilized at the same time

Never in our wildest dreams had we given it any thought
that the spectacular rush would someday come to a sudden halt
Thus when someday became today, we are stranded here to shudder
Who would supply us with emotion, reason, inspiration?
How else would we experience hope and hopelessness at one glance?
Help and helplessness in one life?
Pride and arrogance at the same time?

Oh, Great River, we cling to you
like children to an expressionless father
Please, you can torture us but never let us dry out
and become dull, humorless and lifeless
Never, never leave us with nothing to look forward to
for tomorrow can be such a horrendous nonexistence

However, you've decided to stop
You took a deep inhale and fell down like a giant
With horrifying spasm and moan. Now
Even each of us wishes to die a thousand deaths
in the hope to bring you back
you will not be back. Never

In the corpus of the once great river
unchecked dustbowls constantly shoot up into the air
Clusters of dead weeds swirl in the shrieking windstorm
A world has run out of tears
We the once proud complainers of the great river have ceased to be
Who had known that we are more pathetic when depleted

It won't be long before nobody could even remember
There was a great river
that once provided us with vitality and imagination
on this planet which used to be green
and full of life and emotions. It won't be long

August 1-3, 1999