Hsilo Bridge

Loomingly, the soul of steel remains awake.

Serious silence clangs.

Over the Hsilo Plain sea winds wildy shake

This design of strength, this scheme of beauty; they shake

Every nerve of this tower of will,

Howling and yelling desperately.

Still the teeth of nails bite, the claws of iron rails clench

A serious silence.

Then my soul awakes; I know

I shall be different once across

From what on this side I am; I know

The man across can never come back

To the man before the crossing.

Yet Fate from a mysterious center radiates

A thousand arms to greet me; I must cross the bridge.

Facing the corridor to another world,

I tremble a little.

But the raw wind over the Hsilo Plain

Blows against me with the tidings

That on the other side is the sea.

I tremble a little, but I

Must cross the bridge.

And tall looms the massive silence,

And awake is the soul of steel

西螺大橋

矗然，鋼的靈魂醒著

嚴肅的靜鏗鏘著

西螺平原的海風猛撼著這座

力的圖案，美的網，猛撼著這座

意志之塔的每一根神經

猛撼著，而且絕望地嘯著

而鐵釘的齒緊緊咬著，鐵臂的手緊緊握著

嚴肅的靜

於是，我的靈魂也醒了，我知道

既渡的我將異於

未渡的我，我知道

彼岸的我不能復原為

此岸的我

但命運自神祕的一點伸過來

一千條歡迎的臂，我必須渡河

面臨通向另一個世界的

走廊，我微微地顫抖

但西螺平原的壯闊的風

迎面撲來，告我以海在彼端

我微微地顫抖，但是我

必須渡河

矗立著，龐大的沉沒

醒著，鋼的靈魂

---------

Seven Layers Beneath

The wind now ebbs among the pines. The sun sets

West of the Civil War. Only snow garrisons the frontier.

Thin are the bald branches, like starved nerves of the ear.

In the chilled hush the shrubs are listening.

At sunset, the ill-tempered crow in the birch trees

Begins to curse, in dissonant blasphemies,

General Sedgwick with the broken sword.

Startled and strained are the statued ears.

Featured are the rocks; masks hide behind masks.

Soon the cold fog will rise, and under the biotite sky

The dews will nibble the marrow of the guns

In the rusted silence where mildew creeps.

After the war asleep are the stains of blood.

Mute are the bugles, mute the neighing horses that shied.

After the war the vastness of a battlefield

Is listening to a lone, late crow.

Then Sirius rises from between teeth of battlements.

The weighty sense of Time cumulated falls

On my fatigued collar bone. Also falls

The night, slippery down my icy face.

Softly I tread. Softly, on seven layers of autumn dead,

Seven layers of leaves, crisp and sobbing beneath the shoes,

Till trod and broken lie all the heart-shaped designs,

All the insistences and futilities.

WISDOM SURVIVES PASSION. Ah, exile roaming the

　　battlefield,

There is no past for you, no, not a bit.

New Continent is still too new, past there's none for you.

Your past is west of the sunset, west of it.

─Devil's Den, Gettysburg

七層下

一時松風退濤，落日在內戰以西

殘雪兀自封鎖著邊界

禿柯瘦成聽覺的神經

肅然的寒氣中，灌木叢在傾聽

日落時，壞脾氣的烏鴉

在那邊的樺樹林中咒罵

罵米德將軍斷劍的雕像

百里內，驚動多少耳朵

怪石如顏，鬼面之後有鬼面

不久冷霧泛起，夜空下

露滴侵食鐵砲的骨髓

鏽青了的寂滅中，爬著綠霉

內戰之後，血斑皆酣然

酣然，銅號，酣然，失蹄的嘶馬

內戰之後，一整幅戰場

在靜聽一隻遲歸的鴉

天狼在雉堞的齒隙升起

累積的時間感，全部的重量

向肩胛骨最痠處壓下

夜色瀉下，沿著誰的冰頰

踏。　踏七層死去的秋

七層枯脆在履底悲泣

踏碎一些心形的圖案

一些多情的執著，一些徒然

太上無情。　古戰場的浪子啊

你沒有什麼往事，沒有一星星

新大陸太新，沒有你的往事

往事在落日以西，唉，以西

　　　 ──蓋提斯堡戰場魔鬼穴

------

Smoke Hole Cavern

Pre-historic virgin night devours us,

Such a headless, tailless darkness

Before our life and after our death,

Where, subterranean, blind, cold,

Gargles the trickle of a stream.

We grope upstream along the Lethe

To find the mountain's appendix lead

Nowhere, vaguely aware the sun and moon

Are left revolving somewhere outside.

In whose hand a flashlight

In vain tries to push aside

The impenetrability of it all,

Where a whim-dream has fossilized

Reefs of coral under our feet

And candelabra overhead?

So stalactites fall and stalagmites rise:

So slowly grow Creation's beards.

An inch's fall, an inch's rise

While outside, rise and fall the dynasties.

Eternity's where they never meet.

Eternity, Eternity! How I wish

I could breathe to the petal of an ear:

“love me just the fraction of an inch

And I’ll love you half a yard.” Bell

And bamboo shoot, in this sarcophagus.

A century ago the Confederates,

The guide says, here hid their gold.

And much, much earlier than that,

A feathered and painted Indian chief

Roasted his venison in the cave.

Rocks have their music too, he says

And beats them up and down

And beats them left and right

And upon such a subtle sculpture

Strikes up a pop tune of the Stone Age.

　　─Smoke Hole Cavern, West Virginia

鐘乳巖

史前的童貞夜嚥下了我們

無首無尾的黑暗

生之前，死之後

冰澗漱著細細的地下水

捫到冥川上游

山的盲腸不通向何方

日月都留在洞外

誰的手中一枝電筒

撥也撥不開的深邃

髣髴凝固的夢境

腳下是珊瑚叢

千盞琳琅是吊燈

石乳下降，石筍上升

盤古的白鬚緩緩地長著

千載一釐，萬載一分

升降之間虛懸著永恆

向一隻耳朵噓氣：永恆，永恆

誰能愛我三分

我便愛誰半寸，不腐的石槨中

你是鐘，我是筍

百年前，南軍在洞裏藏金

嚮導說，更早更早以前

戴羽繪面的紅酋長

在洞口薰炙鹿肉

岩石也有音樂啊，他說

且揚杖擊石

向玲玲瓏瓏的雕塑敲起

石器時代的流行樂

　　──西佛吉尼亞．煙洞巖

Hsilo Bridge

Loomingly, the soul of steel remains awake.

Serious silence clangs.

Over the Hsilo Plain sea winds wildy shake

This design of strength, this scheme of beauty; they shake

Every nerve of this tower of will,

Howling and yelling desperately.

Still the teeth of nails bite, the claws of iron rails clench

A serious silence.

Then my soul awakes; I know

I shall be different once across

From what on this side I am; I know

The man across can never come back

To the man before the c...

Foreword to the Third Edition



The Night Watchman was first published in 1992 and then reprinted in 2004. Now another 12 years have passed and this new third edition seems due. Of course this new edition has its changes, with both additions and deletions of about a dozen. The result is still more than 80 poems in this edition, approximately one twelfth of my total output in verse. Yet there is flexibility in counting the poems, because “Summer Thoughts of a Mountaineer” is a series of 7 poems and “Scenes of Kenting National Park” a series of 11.

Another 12 years will find me a centenarian, but I don’t care for being a longevity rarity. So this third edition should remain not only the most recent but also the last edition of The Night Watchman.

Yu Kwang-chung

2016

三版自序

《守夜人》初版於一九九二年，再版於二○○四年，如今又過了十二年；這最新的第三版頗多增刪，增的和刪的各為一打左右。其結果仍是八十多首，約占迄今為止我的總產量十二分之一。不過「首」的認定頗有伸縮，因為這第三版裏收入兩首組詩，例如〈山中暑意七品〉與〈墾丁十一首〉。

再過十二年我就一百歲了，但我對做「人瑞」並不熱衷。所以這第三版該是最新的也是最後的《守夜人》了。

二○一六年

Foreword to the Third Edition



The Night Watchman was first published in 1992 and then reprinted in 2004. Now another 12 years have passed and this new third edition seems due. Of course this new edition has its changes, with both additions and deletions of about a dozen. The result is still more than 80 poems in this edition, approximately one twelfth of my total output in verse. Yet there is flexibility in counting the poems, because “Summer Thoughts of a Mountaineer” is a series of 7 poe...

About the Author

Foreword　《守夜人》自序
Foreword to the Second Edition　二版自序
Foreword to the New Edition　三版自序

Stalactites　鐘乳石
　Hsilo Bridge　西螺大橋（1958）
Music Percussive　敲打樂
　Seven Layers Beneath　七層下（1965）
　Smoke Hole Cavern　鐘乳巖（1965）
　When I Am Dead　當我死時（1966）
　Gray Pigeons　灰鴿子（1966）
　The Single Bed　單人床（1966）
　The Black Angel　黑天使（1966）
　There Was a Dead Bird　有一隻死鳥（1966）
　Music Percussive　敲打樂（1966）
In Time of Cold War　在冷戰的年代
　To the Reader　致讀者（1966）
　All That Have Wings　凡有翅的（1966）
　The Double Bed　雙人床（1966）
　The Field Gun　野　砲（1966）
　A Cat with Nine Lives　九命貓（1967）
　Self-Sculpture　自　塑（1967）
　Green Bristlegrass　狗尾草（1967）
　If There’s a War Raging Afar如果遠方有戰爭（1967）
　The White Curse　白　災（1967）
　Sense of Security　安全感（1967）
　Often I Find　時常，我發現（1968）
　Chimney Smoke　炊　煙（1968）
　A Coin　一枚銅幣（1968）
　The Death of a Swordsman　一武士之死（1968）
　The Death of an Old Poet　老詩人之死（1969）
　I Dreamed of a King　我夢見一個王（1969）
The White Jade Bitter Gourd　白玉苦瓜
　On the Road　江湖上（1970）
　A Folk Song　民　歌（1971）
　The Begonia Tattoo　海棠紋身（1971）
　Passing Fangliao　車過枋寮（1972）
　Building Blocks　積　木（1972）
　Nostalgia　鄉　愁（1972）
　The Telephone Booth　電話亭（1972）
　The Call　呼　喚（1972）
　The Night Watchman　守夜人（1973）
　Beethoven　貝多芬（1974）
　The White Jade Bitter Gourd　白玉苦瓜（1974）
Tug of War with Eternity　與永恆拔河
　The Kite　放風箏（1974）
　The Pole-Vaulter　撐竿跳選手（1976）
　The Power Failure　大停電（1977）
　When Night Falls　蒼茫來時（1977）
　Listening to a Bottle　聽瓶記（1977）
　Tug of War with Eternity　與永恆拔河（1978）
　The Crystal Prison　水晶牢（1978）
Kannon Bodhisattva across the Sea　隔水觀音
　A Tale on the Hi11　山中傳奇（1979）
　Teasing Li Po　戲李白（1980）
　Mosquito Net　紗　帳（1980）
　Autumn Equinox　秋　分（1980）
　The Umbrellas　雨　傘（1981）
　To Painter Shiy De Jinn　寄給畫家（1981）
The Bauhinia　紫荊賦
　Evening　黃　昏（1982）
　Summer Thoughts of a Mountaineer　山中暑意七品（1982）
　Tick Tick Tock　踢踢踏（1982）
　The Spider Webs　蛛　網（1984）
Dream and Geography　夢與地理
　Once upon a Candle　問　燭（1985）
　The Pearl Necklace　珍珠項鍊（1986）
　The Swimmer　泳　者（1986）
　What Is the Rain Saying Through the Night? 　雨聲說些什麼（1986）
　Scenes of Kengting National Park　墾丁十一首（1986）
　Dream and Bladder　夢與膀胱（1987）
　The Gecko　壁　虎（1987）
　The Sunflowers　向日葵（1988）
The Pomegranates　安石榴
　The Diver　跳水者（1988）
　Mother, I’m Hungry　媽媽，我餓了（1989）
　In Praise of Hong Kong　讚香港（1989）
　The Langlois Bridge　荷蘭吊橋（1990）
　By the Darkening Window　在漸暗的窗口（1990）
By All Five Elements　五行無阻
　Holding My Grandson　抱　孫（1993）
　On Such a Windy Night　在多風的夜晚（1994）
　No Lullaby　非安眠曲（1994）
A Hight Window Overlooking the Sea　高樓對海
　All Throughout This My Life: To Mother　母難日：今生今世（1995）
　Happy Was the World: To Mother　母難日：矛盾世界（1995）
　The Flying Sunflower─To Comet Hale-Bopp　飛行的向日葵（1997）
　On My Seventieth Birthday　七十自喻（1998）
　At the Twilight Hour　蒼茫時刻（1998）
The God of Lotus Root　藕神
　In Memory of Chopin　永念蕭邦（1999）
　The Emerald White Cabbage　翠玉白菜（2004）
　Aunt Ice, Aunt Snow　冰姑，雪姨（2007）
　Cirrus over Cape Cod　鱈岬上空的卷雲（2008）
　At the Dentist＇s　牙關（2008）
　Arco Iris　虹（2008）
　Tug of War with the River　水草拔河（2008）
　Great Is a Mother’s Love－To a Victim Orphaned by the Recent Earthquake in Sichwan　大哉母愛—給大難不死的孤兒（2008）
The Sun Calling His Children　太陽點名
　A Visitor from Mongolia　客從蒙古來（2011）
Uncollected Poems 尚未結集
　To Chris on His Going West from Denver　送樓克禮自丹佛西行（1971）
　Midway　半途（2014）

NOTES

About the Author

Foreword　《守夜人》自序
Foreword to the Second Edition　二版自序
Foreword to the New Edition　三版自序

Stalactites　鐘乳石
　Hsilo Bridge　西螺大橋（1958）
Music Percussive　敲打樂
　Seven Layers Beneath　七層下（1965）
　Smoke Hole Cavern　鐘乳巖（1965）
　When I Am Dead　當我死時（1966）
　Gray Pigeons　灰鴿子（1966）
　The Single Bed　單人床（1966）
　The Black Angel　黑天使（1966）
　There Was a Dead Bird　有一隻死鳥（1966）
　Music Percussive　敲打樂（196...