Endure
PoetryPantherophis obsoletus
November 24
Rú
茹
Endure
The eternality suffering
in a single word, a child’s name.
Roots tangled among sharp stones.
A long black snake
enters the nursery
like an ancient wave.
She grabs her name
by the tail.
The name arcs back,
every muscle an eternity
of coil upon its prey.
She swings her arm
in wider and wider loops,
and still the name flexes
to the center of its spinning.
She steps into the sunlight.
Language,
a black shadow of poison,
writhes on the wall
of her parents’ house.
She releases the snake,
watches it arc over the garden wall,
watches it turn to liquid carbon,
watches it return to language
and become this poem.
There is a plant called As If.
Its seeds sprout in any soil.
Its roots split every stone
until they become stone sharp.
It mimics what it grows among
even as it grows within itself,
as if, as if.
As If, As If,
can you tell me of its flower?
They say it is ink-black
as if, as if
its petals were ink itself
as if, as if
it had grown even here
in the form of a name,
in the form of smoke.
_________
十一月二十四日
茹
永恆忍苦
在一個字，一個孩子的名字
根部纏結尖利的石頭
一條黑色的長蛇
迂迴育嬰室
像古老的一股波浪
她用蛇尾
抓住她的名字
名字蜿蜒盤旋
每一膂力一次永生
鬥折襲擊它的犧牲者
她揮動臂膀
更寬更闊的環形
名字依然屈伸
在旋轉的中心
她跨入陽光
語言
毒藥的黑色影子
在她的父母的房子
牆壁上扭動身軀
她松開蛇
注視它蜿蜒越過花園的牆壁
注視它轉變成液體的碳
注視它返回語言
變成這首詩
有一種植物名叫如艸
它的種子逢土發芽
它的根部裂碎石頭
直到它們變成亂石穿空
它模仿它周圍的生長
甚至當它生長在自身中
如艸，如艸
如艸，如艸
能否告訴我它的花朵？
他們說它是墨黑色
如艸，如艸
它的花瓣是墨本身
如艸，如艸
甚至在這裡它也曾生長
如一個名字
如一縷青煙
Translated by Rong Sun (孫蓉)
