041
Those trees with unknown names
Endeavor to grow taller
Only to gaze afar at the sea?
A playground that once buried your shadow
A basketball, fed to the loop
042
I repeatedly use the same second
Like a transparent sealed jar
Giving the soft, distressing desire a hard bite
043
Into the numerous blanks
I pour too much cement by mistake––
Your cloze test
044
Who embondages me with translucent threads
Like a moon hovering above a map
Unable to advance or back down
047
The sea has always been looking at the nude island
Until the setting sun plummets
It still attempts, with the waves on its tongue, to convince
While disarming all its blue
050
The fallen snow piles up to my throat
All that remains in sight are
Songs that can’t escape in time
051
The whole world sways like a ripe fruit
The baby in the crack
Sucks dusts with its eyes closed
052
Before the extinction of rainforests
Fold the last paper in hand
Into a sun
053
The people who pitch meteors to each other in a hallway
Discover a black hole growing on their chests
A long, long life
Honored with tears
054
Ever since banning chickens and ducks from meeting up
Two pages of hand-written fairy tales have gone missing
Children are sleeping soundly in the cold wave
Unaware of it at all
056
Two submarines meet at the sea bottom
Emitting love-seeking sounds that are weaker than shrimps
No one ever knows
If any limbic touch will lead to world destruction
057
White night––the milk has been knocked over
It spills onto the floor like blood
The heartbroken take a stroll, blindfolded
And think they could barter darkness
For a rainbow
059
“What’re they selling there?”
“What we already have.”
060
Let me be a ruined fake town in the fog
Waiting for the moon’s hints
About your solitary patrol at night
061
The eyeballs ferment honey, when
The beehive on the left chest is again
Gashed by a far-off love song
063
The shadow itself
Is already enough to crush the wall
I’ve built with all my might by piling up silences
064
No one can ever perfectly wear somebody
Hence no way to successfully take off one’s self
065
In the woods, a setting sun is broken then reassembled
It shoots randomly at each moving avatar
And their carry-on existence
“No more regrets.”
066
The cracking fireworks that burst forth near a viaduct
Look like happiness you’re feeding––
I cross forward, torn into pieces
And run into massive darkness
067
Your tender attributes
Are a carpet covering cooling floor tiles
That wait for a gentle step
070
A daily wish:
I want to be unfolded and read like papier à lettres:
Exquisite fingers gently open
A recovered scar
071
Bidding you farewell.
The odds and ends squeezed in the wind
Push over every leaf
073
By a cloudy seashore
I keep in mind what you’ve been curious about
The moonlight with its glow makes a shadow
As well as its elemental shame
074
Let the fake tidal waves drown a part of you
Until the reef of the chest declares pain
075
A high season for forgetting
A Ferris wheel gradually halts right before you
My heart, deserted like a grave
076
It’s always been like this:
Books can’t read books, biscuits can’t swallow biscuits
Cameras can’t take photos of themselves
You underestimate your beauty’s maxima
077
Someone with a specialty in breaking toys
Hides in a paranoid forest
His eyes are tightly closed
And wait for fate to be splashed onto the face
079
What you’re chewing is mine
Borrowed and translated:
Lucky ones
《你不在那兒》節錄
041
那些不知名的樹
努力長高
只為了眺望海嗎
曾經淺埋過你影子的操場
一顆籃球，餵給了籃框
042
我反覆使用那一秒鐘
像一個透明密合罐
緊咬住柔軟而難堪的欲望
043
在眾多空格
我誤填入太多水泥──
你的克漏字測驗
044
是誰為我纏縛透明的線
像一枚懸浮地圖上空
進退不得的月亮
047
海一直凝望島的裸體
直到夕陽墜落
仍試圖以舌尖的浪潮說服
並繳械所有的藍
050
雪下到喉嚨的高度
視線所及都是
來不及逃生的歌
051
整個世界像熟透的水果搖晃
裂縫中的嬰兒
閉著眼睛吸吮灰塵
052
在雨林消失前
用手中最後一張紙
摺出太陽
053
走廊上互擲流星的人們
發現胸口長出黑洞
長長的一生
用眼淚慶祝
054
雞鴨禁見之後
手抄本童話從此缺佚兩頁
孩子們在寒流中酣睡
渾然未覺
056
兩艘潛艇海底相遇
發出比蝦微弱的求愛聲響
沒有人知道
任何肢體碰觸是否就將毀滅世界
057
白夜──牛奶被打翻了
潑在地上模仿血
傷心的人們蒙眼散步
以為能用盲黑
兌換彩虹
059
「那裡在賣什麼？」
「我們已經擁有的東西。」
060
讓我像大霧中破敗的假城鎮
等待月亮暗示
你將恩賜一次單人夜巡
061
眼球釀蜜，當
左胸口的蜂窩，再度
被一首遙遠的情歌刺穿
063
僅僅是背影
已夠擊崩我使盡全力
用沉默堆高的牆
064
沒有人能正確穿上他人
只因無法成功脫下自己
065
林葉間破碎又重組的夕陽
隨機射向每一個移動中的角色
與他們所攜帶的生存
「沒有任何遺憾。」
066
高架橋邊綻裂的煙火
像你餵食的快樂──
我粉身向前
撞上龐大的黑。
067
你溫柔的品質
是冰涼地磚上覆蓋著方毯
等待一次輕踏
070
日常許願：
想要像一封信箋被你拆閱：
漂亮手指輕輕揭開
癒合的疤
071
向你道別。
擁擠在風中的什物
推翻了每一葉
073
在多曇的海邊
牢記你曾好奇的事
月光曬出影子
及成分裡的羞恥
074
讓假的潮汐掩去部分的你
直到胸口的礁石宣布疼痛
075
忘記的旺季
摩天輪漸漸止於你的前一秒
使我心寂如墳
076
總是如此：
書不能翻閱書，餅乾吃不下餅乾
相機無法拍攝自己
你低估你美麗的最大值
077
擅於弄壞玩具的人
躲進偏執狂的小森林
雙眼緊閉
等命運濺上他的臉
079
你咀嚼的是我的
假借與轉譯：
幸運兒。
—
Born in 1976 in Taiwan, Sun Tzu-ping graduated from the Graduate Institute of Creative Writing and English Literature at National Dong Hwa University. He is currently an editor at the Liberty Times. Chinese titles by Sun include Knowing Shadows (essays), Sentimentalist (poems) and Male Bodies (a novel), among others.
Nicholas Wong is the author of Crevasse (Kaya Press, 2015), the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Besiege Me (Noemi Press, 2021). He is also the recipient of the Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize. His translation has recently appeared or will appear in Ninth Letter, The Georgia Review, Washington Square Review, Cincinnati Review, and Colorado Review. IG: @citiesofsameness.