葛綠柯植物誌 (5): The White Rose

〈白玫瑰〉

這是大地？那麼

我不屬於這裡

亮著燈的窗內你是誰

此刻掩映在行路人樹*

閃動的葉影裡？

你是否會存活，當我

在這第一個夏季後死去？

整夜，樹的纖細枝條

在明亮的窗外窸窣欠動。

解釋我的生命吧，不做任何表示的你，

儘管我在夜裡向你呼喊：

我不像你，我只有

這具身體作為聲音；我無法

消失在沉默裡——

清冷的早晨

在黑暗的地表

我的聲音迴響飄散

白色漸漸被黑暗吸納

彷彿你畢竟做出表示

要說服我你也無法在此存活

或者告訴我你並非我呼喊的光

而是其後的闃黑

The White Rose

This is the earth? Then

I don't belong here.

Who are you in the lighted window,

shadowed now by the flickering leaves

of the wayfarer tree?

Can you survive where I won't last

beyond the first summer?

All night the slender branches of the tree

shift and rustle at the bright window.

Explain my life to me, you who make no sign,

Though I call out to you in the night:

I am not like you, I have only

my body for a voice; I can't

disappear into silence--

And in the cold morning

over the dark surface of the earth

echoes of my voice drift,

whiteness steadily absorbed into darkness

as though you were making a sign after all

to convince me you too couldn't survive here

or to show me you are not the light I called to

but the blackness behind it.

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* Wayfarer's tree 又稱 wayfaring tree，學名 Viburnum lantana，中文叫綿毛莢蒾，但這名稱傳達不出英文俗名的行路意象，所以此處選擇字面直譯。