[原创英文诗自译]哦，大河(Oh, Great River)

哦，大河


年长几岁半夜从睡梦中坐起

汗流浃背的习惯似有好转

只是偶尔在凌晨会出现

双手抱头莫名重击的情景


“大河断水了！”


断水之梦初现时

就有隐隐作痛之感

可叹的是我竟喜好感受

这不断扩散不断尖刻的痛楚


千年历史溶入我们的血流

大河奔流理所当然，毕竟

那狂野的交响乐里有过我们的歌声

受到鼓舞，我们扯开嗓子放声唱啊

张开所有的毛孔，四肢伸展

让灵魂与精神一起漂流

任生命之翼上下翻飞

我们谩骂过也赞美过啊

那令人灵感纷飞的活力和气概

我们在粗犷的涛声里大声欢笑

我们在天翻地覆的洪水里痛哭流涕

诞生在他宽厚的臂弯里

死时化成他的浪花一朵

我们爱过，我们恨过，我们来了又去了

亘古不变的惟有大河奔流，世代不息

这大河从一开始便主宰着

我们生存还是毁灭的理由

那桀傲不驯赋予我们粗犷和文明

是啊，这一切真的既怪诞又奇妙



只是我们谁也没有想到谁也没有梦到

这牵心挂肠的巨流有一天会突然断绝！

这不，这一天来了，就在今天

我们被遗弃了，只会瑟瑟发抖呀

这世上还有谁能赋予我们情感，理智和激情？

我们还会在一个端藐里同时看到希望感受绝望吗？

还会有那么一辈子有恃无恐却又惶恐不安的日子吗？

我们还能活的既面子十足又能傲慢自大么？


哦，大河，我们手拉着你

就象一帮孩子围着一位面无表情的父亲

您可以打我们骂我们，但千万不能

让我们干瘪了，愚钝了，失去幽默，没有生机了呀

千万不能让我们绝望

明天原本不复存在的呀！



可是，您决定停流了

倒吸一口凉气，巨人般轰然倒下

那一阵子抽搐，那令人掩面的喘息哪！

如今我们每个人即使肯死千次万次

将您换回，可您不回来了

永不复返，永不复返了哪！


河床象巨大的疮疤

沙尘暴飞扬跋扈甚嚣尘上

枯草团在风里翻卷哭号

全世界的泪水从此枯竭了

我们这些大河曾经气鼓鼓的抱怨者

这会儿哑巴了。真没承想

干瘪了的人会可怜成如此模样



用不了很久了，人们便不再记得

这里曾经流淌过一条大河

那条曾经给过我们活力和想象力的大河哦

大声大气地欢腾在这颗曾经绿色的星球

充满过生机和情感的星球哦。用不了很久了


1999年8月1-3日

[译自home.pacbell.net/nxliu/, 英文标题为"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