Niu Han: Two Poems

牛汉诗两首

　　夜
　　
关死门窗
觉得黑暗不会再进来
　　
我点起了灯
　　
但黑暗是一群狼
还伏在我的门口
　　
听见有千万只爪子
不停地撕袭着我的窗户
　　
灯在颤抖
在不安的灯光下我写诗
　　
诗不颤抖！


Night
　　　　　　by Niu Han tr. Fan Jinghua
Seal the door and shut the window
And I feel that darkness is screened off

I light my lamp

But darkness is a pack of wolves
Lurking outside my door

Thousands of claws
Scratching and mauling my windows

My lamp trembles
Under its quivering light I write

My poems don’t tremble


　　半棵树

真的，我看见过半棵树
在一个荒凉的山丘上

像一个人
为了避开迎面的风暴
侧着身子挺立着

它是被二月的一次雷电
从树尖到树根
齐楂楂劈掉了半边

春天来到的时候
半棵树仍然直直地挺立着
长满了青青的枝叶

半棵树
还是一整棵树那样高
还是一整棵那样伟岸

人们说
雷电还要来劈它
因为它还是那么直那么高

雷电从远远的天边就盯住了它


A Half Tree
　　　　　　by Niu Han tr. Fan Jinghua
Truly, I used to see
A half tree standing on a bleak hilltop

Like a man
Avoiding the frontal assaults of storms
It erects in profile

After a February thunderbolt
It split up into halves
One half of its trunk entirely chopped off

When the following spring came
The remnant still stood
Bolt upright with lush leaves on new twigs

Half a tree stands
As lofty and majestic
As the one that was whole

People say
Thunderbolts would hack it again
As it still stands so high and straight

It makes a conspicuous target for the distant thunderbolts

About the Author:
牛汉(1923-)，原名史成汉，出版的诗集有《彩色的生活》(1951)、《爱与歌》(1954)、《温泉》(1984)、《海上蝴蝶》(1985)、《沉默的悬崖》(1986)、《牛汉诗选》(1998)。

NIU Han (1923-), a.k.a. SHI Chenghan, has published poetry books Colorful Life (1951), Love and Songs (1954), Hot Springs (1984), Butterflies On the Sea (1985), Silent Cliffs (1986), Selected Poems (1998) etc.