Yeng Pway Ngon 英培安 (1947-2021)
SELECTED POEMS
你在这车子里
高速公路与暴雨扑打挡风玻璃
你在这车子里
车窗外的树向你喧嚣摇摆
像个喝醉的酒徒
你镇静如夜空的星星
握着小提琴的死神
可能正伏在你的肩上
你安详闭眼睡眠
安慰忧虑的司机
一切总会过去
就像感冒一样
by Yeng Pway Ngon 英培安
from Stone (2020)
You’re In This Car
the highway and storm wailing away at the windscreen
and you're in this car
beyond the window, rain tree sways at you through the hurly-burly
like a sot three sheets to the wind
and you calm as a star fixed in the night skyDeath holding her violin
could be crouched on your shoulder this very moment
serene, you snooze, shut-eye
soothing the worrywart at the wheel:
this too will pass —
just like a common cold
Translator's note: One of Yeng's last poems. Stone is very much about looking towards the end, with acceptance, with wisdom, with love. The fiery passion of Yeng's youthful work has cooled, has solidified, has accreted into rock, into stone and monument, into something that knows what it is and where it will be, always.
by Yeng Pway Ngon 英培安
translated from the Chinese by Joshua Ip
from Stone (2020)
