乡愁

乡愁是心头涩涩的滋味，
乡愁是涌上眼帘而不曾落下的泪。
乡愁是你凝望远方的眼神，
乡愁是我不知所措的疲惫。

乡愁是你眼中的那朵白云，
孤寂地在天空飘。
乡愁是我眸中的那只小鸟，
怯怯地在草间跳。

乡愁是窗外的那颗枯桐，
执意将落叶打向窗棂。
乡愁是屋角的那盏台灯，
炽热地眨着昏黄眼睛。

乡愁是对你无法说出的眷恋，
乡愁是望你一眼便消失的梦幻。

Cloud and Night

云

从虚无 中来，徘徊
在空空里。
步履轻盈，蹒跚
向何处归去？

本是一抹尘埃，
焉何到此高界？
宠受光焰非本意，
哪里觅孤寂？

不要把我阴郁的面庞
说成是悲哀
燃烧的炉膛里不可能有冰雪
即使在我泪流满面的时候
也不要说我在忧伤。

从无边里来
到无边里去
在光华四射的时候
我走向消极。



奔

我走在夜的心脏
听不见夜莺歌唱。
济慈的美梦已醒，
夜行的蝙蝠扑腾在何方？

几盏孤寂的路灯
几株冷落的白杨
辨不清的嗡嗡机音
萦绕我在灰色的建筑群。

我走在夜的心脏
闻不到花草暗香。
即便是波德莱尔之花
也被夜色深深埋葬。

夏的蛙鸣已去
秋的蝉唱不响
寒冷的冬夜不飞雪
黑暗里只生长欲望与诱惑
哪里去觅灵感的光彩？

我走在夜的心脏
寻不着灵感的光芒
浓浓的暗在我的肢体沉淀
撂我倒在黎明的边上。

Mother

I am afraid
She won’t wait for me
To know her better.
I have long planned
When I am not so damn busy
To sleep in the big bed with her arm around me
Telling me all about herself
Not what I was as a child
But her life when small, young, and meridian
How did she manage it as a woman
Bringing up four daughters and
Surviving two husbands and three sons.


Ever since I remember
I have been flying away
On various planes of language
That she labors for me to catch up with.
The one thing she truly misses, she says
Is the night school that was closed
Before she learned to write wo— the self
That have many strokes in it, she remembers
Never managed to sketch even half of them
She would gave anything
If only Chairman Mao could be back and re-open the night school
For women like her.

a o e y u ü
Standard Chinese
English
I am farther away
I do not even tell her
I am doing a Ph.D
In women’s studies
I am afraid to be asked
What do you do
I do not have a language
To make her understand
That women needs studies

She’s been counting the days
I have left for America.
I am getting shier of the phone
Do not know how to answer
When are you to be back?

Wait for me, wait for me—
I will come home—
With no language but egg noodle soup
To fill your bowl—
We will touch the rain—
Drink the smell of the corn field—
Watch the rainbow
Arching over
East—West—
North—South—
High—Low—
Left—Right
You by me and me by you

Apple and Sunday Noon

In the dee dee da da silence of Sunday noon
I set out numerous claws contained
In an old fashioned fashionable cocoon
To crawl over the smoothy sneaky surface of the ball
Trying to detect some sound solid core
Trapped up in juicy joy floppy floor

Ka ta ka ta
Ka ta ka ta ka ta
I packaged several boxes of crawling claws
To send out
To various bites of my s-elf
In the dee dee da da silence of the noon.

Click, clock, cling, clang
Click, clock, cling, clang
I collected from various bites of my s-elf
Tanks and tanks of crawling claws
In the dee dee da da silence of the noon.