Kuo Cheng-yi / 郭成義

Kuo Cheng-Yi（b. 1950）has served in the Capital Morning Post（首都早報）and later in Liberty Times（自由時報）before his retirement.  He had been the editor-in-chief of the Li Poetry Magazine. His publications of poetry include Rose's Bloodstain（薔薇的血跡）, The Gloom of Taiwanese Folk（台灣民謠的苦悶）, Homeland（國土）, Collection of Poems by Kuo Cheng-yi（郭成義詩選 集）and We Jasmine（我們茉莉花）. He has also published some books in literary criticism including From Lyrical Enjoyment to Anti-Artistic Thought（從抒情趣味到反藝術思想）, The Poet's Work（詩人的作業）and so on.

e-mail: guo80036@gmail.com

        雨夜花

只因為溫柔

才移根到這小小的地方

慢慢被修剪成

水仙一樣孤獨的花

在仰望雨露的花瓣上

我夜夜不休的織著

幾絲纖長而浪漫的夢

竟越來越深了

沒有人知道

夢是只有在雨夜裡才看得見的花

我終於在落雨的昨夜

赤裸地綻開了

脈脈含淚的花瓣

只是

有人說

昨夜確曾聽到

我斷氣的聲音

        A Flower on a Rainy Night

For being gentle and meek,

I was transplanted to this small place

and gradually pruned into

a lonely flower like a narcissus.

On the petals that long for rain and dew,

I keep weaving night after night

some tenuous and amorous dreams

which turn out to be longer and deeper.

Nobody knows

dreams are the flowers visible only on a rainy night.

Last night it was raining,

I finally bloomed nakedly

with unbidden tears falling on the petals.

Yet somebody admitted that

last night he heard

the sound of my last breath.

(Trans: K C Tu)

        領結的美學

被拘禁在商店

的玻璃室裡

而把假人的脖子

殺死了的

黑領結

有時是浮現在

被映照的我的頸間

灌滿著

暴力美學的領結

有時從溫柔的手上

竟被逃亡了

懸虛的那空缺

成為一個暗殺的現場

只出神地瞭望著

對世界充滿溫柔的

美的幻想的

那個人

        Aesthetics of a Bowtie

Detained inside the glass

Of a shop window,

A black bowtie

Has strangled the mannequin to death

But sometimes appears

On my reflected neck.

Filled with aesthetics of violence,

A bowtie sometimes

Absconds from the gentle hands.

The empty position it left

Has become the scene of a murder.

Held spellbound and gazing afar,

That man, full of gentle

And beautiful fantasy

Toward the world.

(Trans: K. C. Tu)