Lloyd Haft Blog 漢樂逸: 乍現人面石

Brief bio sketch

Lloyd Haft (1946- ) was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin USA and lived as a boy in Wisconsin, Louisiana and Kansas. In 1968 he graduated from Harvard College and went to Leiden, The Netherlands for graduate study in Chinese (M. A. 1973, Ph. D. 1981). From 1973 to 2004 he taught Chinese language and literature, mostly poetry, at Leiden. His sinological publications include Pien Chih-lin: A Study in Modern Chinese Poetry (1983/2011; published in Chinese translation as 发现卞之琳: 一位西方学者的探索之旅 in 2010) and A Guide to Chinese Literature (with Wilt Idema, 1997). His liberal modern Dutch reading of Laozi's Daode jing was published as Lau-tze's vele wegen by Synthese in September 2017. His newest books in English are translations: Herman Gorter: Selected Poems (Arimei Books, 2021), Zhou Mengdie: 41 Poems (Azoth Books, 2022), and Totally White Room (Poems by Gerrit Kouwenaar, Holland Park Press, 2023). He has translated extensively into English from the Dutch of Herman Gorter, Gerrit Kouwenaar, and Willem Hussem, and from the Chinese of various poets including Lo Fu, Yang Lingye, Bian Zhilin and Zhou Mengdie.

Since the 1980s he has also been active as a poet writing in Dutch and English. He was awarded the Jan Campert Prize for his 1993 bilingual volume Atlantis and the Ida Gerhardt Prize for his 2003 Dutch free-verse readings of the Psalms (republished by Uitgeverij Vesuvius in 2011). His newest books of poetry in Dutch are Intocht (Introit) and Beluisteringen (Soundings), published by Uitgeverij Van Warven in November 2023.

After early retirement in 2004, for a number of years Lloyd Haft spent much of his time in Taiwan with his wife Katie Su. In June 2019 he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of National Taiwan Normal University. In addition to writing and translating, his interests include Song-dynasty philosophy and tai chi. For many years he sang in the choir of a Roman Catholic church of the Eastern Rite in The Hague.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

乍現人面石

乍現人面石

原文 [Gerezen rots]登載於荷蘭知名雜誌

[DE GIDS], 2011/4, p.448-453

作者：Lloyd Haft 漢樂逸

翻譯：蘇桂枝Katie Su

我看著臺灣大溪海岸的一塊漂石，越看越覺得像人

那石頭一旦靠近了，

看得見眼睛，像我們—

不是塵埃積成，

波濤形塑—

於此自我體現，

在我們來到之處

隨着過往者載入。

名爲“漂石”，如人一般

看它多麼的像，

迎我而來

升上海面

海沒有話語

只有來去，

來而再去。

石頭爲了像我而來，

共同倖存—

在此一起聳立

緣於根已抽離大地，

沒有基地，

無以安詳。

跟著我

在海岸穹蒼

不被沖毀，

佇立在浪頭。

隨我在此持續張開

存在的眼睛：

頭顱內的眼眶，

石頭內的洞—

人們說是兩樣，

目視爲一。

與我執之

我並不是來拯救漂石

它跟我一起升上，

跟我一起拋棄大地，

離鄉背景，

讓海就此倘佯，

內心的堅毅持續指著

我來之處：

就在那裏：

我所在的：這裏

朝着迴響，

一起對峙所有的背景。

與我孤之

看來像碑

立足這種光線下，

石柱排除顛倒，

抵擋諸水般之

老朽沉落。.

罄竹難書：

是反意象，是背生活？

自身投射的跡象：

其屹立存在，

我亦超脫

圍繞我們的波濤，

那老套的魔般滔天

噗通澎湃之外—

我寧可跟風，

跟石頭一般永恆。

不用告訴石頭我何物，何在

我鼎立之處

我永存之所—

看這石頭

不想著地，

不想築寓

塵囂喧譁裏，

從陳腔濫調中

解脫

逆向海風

矗立

對着夕陽沉默，

對著所有沉陷

無語。

永恆者幸福

我願那般行走—

若即若離，

弛而

非弛，

已鬆動

仍聯結，

雙眼相望

一起矗立，

石裏亦有空境，

泛白之間等待，

與我風中等待風。