Willis Barnstone 
Translator

on Lyrikline: 1 poems translated

from: 中文 to: 英文

Original

Translation

變奏

中文 | BEI Ling

──臺北1995

娜娜,當著天空注滿殷紅
告訴我,你我,是你和我
那是一種孤愁

娜娜,時間悠長而蕭瑟
我們沉於綿綿之中
那使我們困惑的
是光陰,是世紀之末
那是我們擁有的唯一徵兆

娜娜,那是展現終極的地方
我們被純粹的深淵環繞
我們忘形
我們絕望地咀嚼褐色的茅草
我們被悲哀遺忘的感覺
如此美好,如此地
被美豔的事物所消耗

娜娜,我們纏繞
我們在淚的天空下
彼此熟悉著纏繞
在漫長的荒蕪裡
在妄想的虛無裡
纏繞-----竟也有著絕對的奇妙

娜娜,我們古舊的長髮飄逸
如同幽暗天空下霧的清繚
我們相擁,我們相擁的是一種迷惘的飄蕩
當著時空交錯,當著身體
在夜的浩大下開放
我們沉溺,我們沉重地沉溺
在愛的淋漓下沉溺
我們將怎樣地面對沉溺
在烈烈暴日的擊打下

喪失,竟也充滿了記憶

© BEI Ling
from: Bei Ling Selected Poems (1980-1995)
Boston: TENDENCY Inc., 2006
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2009

Variations

英文

Taipei,1995

Nana, when the sky is filled with sexy bloody red,
tell me, are you and I one solitary mulled-over sorrow?

Nana, time is very slow with nothing to do and bleak.
We indulge in soft cotton feelings.  Time confuses us
in its light and shadow
and the end of the century also splits us
with the only sign we possess

Nana, that place is where the ultimate end shows off.
We are encircled by a dejected deep erotic valley of
Water.
We lose our shapes.  We hopelessly chew brownish grass.
This is our feeling.  We are forgotten by sadness
beautiful and consumed
among lovely objects.

Nana, we tangle our feelings and limbs together.
Under the firmament of tears
we intimately hold on
and in imaginary barrenness there is nothing
but us entangled into one
absolute miracle.

Nana, our ancient long windy hair hurled freely about
like clear and winding fog
under the dark and mysteriously obscure sky.
What we embrace is meandering
when time and space intersect, when bodies bloom
in the enormity of the night.  We are magnetized
gravely down to the bottom
under a sweaty waterfall of love.
How can we confront being drawn together
When assaulted by vehement sunlight?

Loss is surprisingly the fourth memory.

© Translated by Willis Barnstone