translations by Chun Yu 俞淳

The Scream

I felt a large scream pass through nature.
–Edvard Munch

How could Munch have known 135 years ago
That soundless howl, that cry of anguish
Concealed in everyone and everything
Like some wild, wounded beast captured
In beeswax, paraffin and gum pastels?
The self-annihilation, the powerful and
Beautiful natural order of things
Receding into chaotic nights
Of recoiling terror?
Only the crows and gulls seem to know
Their sinister caws and flapping of wings
A portent of things to come
If the screech of crows sound like
The scream of someone being hung
The scream of nature is
The sound of madness
A river at its breaking point
An earth-shattering roar
Limitless and inhuman
Sweeping everything away
Fragmenting memory
Dispatching death
Without justice or partiality
In the time it takes
A pot of water to boil
The cry, the scream
Without knowing
When or why?

尖叫

我感到一聲巨大的尖叫穿過天地。
— 愛德華·蒙奇

蒙奇怎麼會在135年前知道
那無聲的嚎叫，那痛苦的呼喊
隱藏在每個人和每件事中
就像在蜂蠟、石蠟和口香糖粉裏
被攝住的野獸一樣？
那自我毀滅，那強大和
美好的，自然的秩序
退入捲縮著恐怖的混亂夜晚？
似乎只有烏鴉和海鷗知道
他們邪惡的叫聲和翅膀的拍打
是未來事情的凶兆
如果烏鴉的尖叫聲聽起來
像有人被吊死的尖叫聲
大自然的尖叫聲
是瘋狂錯亂之聲
一條河流在它的轉折點
一聲驚天動地的
無窮無盡非人的咆哮
把一切掃去
把記憶擊成碎片
在燒開一壺水
需要的時間裏
沒有公正或偏袒地
把死亡打發走
那呼喊，尖叫
不知何時
和為何？

The Journey

Though we cannot be together at all times
May the blessings of our ancestors protect us
Though we cannot change the path of
The sun or the moon
May we persevere in this place of
Wind and darkness, like the cuckoo
Who returns from far off lands
To sip the fruit of liberation
How joyful it would be if I could see
The faces of my children, radiant as stars!

The pursuit of freedom is filled with hardship
To persevere through life is a struggle
Sorrow is the immigrant’s fate
His gift to the fellow beings who come after
Is the truth of freedom, that powerful
Illumination that bright, clear light that
Cuts through the ignorance of
Hatred, fear and injustice
The spirit of hope and determination—
That is the immigrant’s sword to
Dispel the darkness of the world—
The spirit of change and transformation
That is the immigrant’s dream
To end man’s inhumanity to man
With tolerance and compassion
With equality, peace and love
The ultimate revolution

–This concluding poem in Within These Walls, performed by Lenora Lee dance at Angel Island Island

 
旅程

雖然我們不能時時刻刻在一起，
願我們祖先的祝福保佑我們，
盡管我們不能改變
太陽或月亮的軌跡
願我們在這風和黑暗之地
堅持下去，就像布谷鳥
從遙遠的地方歸來
啜飲解放的果實
多麽快樂
如果能看到我的孩子們的臉，
像星星一樣閃閃發光！

對自由的追求是充滿艱辛的
堅持一生是一場鬥爭
悲哀是移民的命運
他給後來者的禮物是
自由的真理，那強大的光
那刺透了仇恨、恐懼和不公的
明亮、清澈的光
希望和決心的精神—
是移民驅散世界黑暗的利劍—
改變和革新的精神
是移民的夢想：
那以寬容和同情
以平等、和平和愛
結束人類對人類的不人道的
終極革命

–2017年版權歸根妮·林所有—《在這些墻內》的結尾詩，由萊諾拉·李舞蹈團在天使島表演

—

Genny Lim is San Francisco Jazz Poet Laureate emeritus, born and raised in San Francisco to immigrant parents from the Kwantung region of Toisan, where an oral culture rich with folklore, natural medicine and healing songs was brought to America. The rhythms and music of the Toisan language, find harmony of expression in the freedom of contemporary American jazz in Lim’s poetry. Her poetry-jazz work, “Don’t Shoot! Requiem in Black,” dedicated to Black Lives Matter, premiered at SF Jazz Center in 2018 with Marshall Trammell, Francis Wong, and Equipto. She is author of five poetry collections, Winter Place, Child of War, Paper Gods and Rebels, KRA!, La Morte Del Tempo, and co-author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, winner of the American Book Award and the anthology, Window: Glimpses of Our Storied Past, memoirs of Senior Asian American immigrants and World War II camp survivors.