Poets' Cafe 詩人咖啡屋

2008美国大选后的感想

严力

我嫉妒

投胎于富裕家庭的生灵

不需要修改运气

我嫉妒

天生长相秀丽英俊的人士

后天的妆扮里不用添油加醋

我嫉妒

靠肤色就能得到

职务优待的企业和公司

我嫉妒

依赖法律就能

人人平等呼吸的社稷

我嫉妒

充足的养老金能让你

把古典名著重读一遍的悠闲

我嫉妒

依赖大自然的能源

就能过上富裕日子的国家

我嫉妒

每个人都能靠勤奋

改变命运的体制

所以我嫉妒

能理性地把嫉妒转换成

自我奋斗的英雄

2008.11.6．

Feelings on the U.S. 2008 Election

                                                 By Yan Li

I am jealous of souls

Who take birth in wealthy families

They don’t need to revise their luck

I am jealous

Of people born with attractive features

Their looks need no window dressing

I am jealous

Of companies where skin color

Promises preference for a job

I am jealous of a society

Where people can rely on the law

To enjoy equality of breathing

I am jealous of pensions

That give a person adequate leisure

To re-read the classics of literature

I am jealous of a country

Enabled by nature’s resources

To live in abundance

I am jealous that its people

Can rely on hard work to amend

The institutional decrees of fate

And so I am jealous of heroes

Who know how to turn jealousy

Into a motivation to excel

                      Nov 6, 2008

                      Tr. by Denis Mair

……………………………………………………………………………..

致奥巴马

严力

刚把倒在华尔街的

金融敢死队抬离开

美国就重新洗了牌

选民们翻开了一张

史无前例的大牌

你在牌上的双肩

马上被资本博弈的大梁

紧紧压住

而腰间

伊拉克的手雷在继续摇晃

这不知要动用

多少个月的拆卸啊

你才能轻装前进？

地产业的砖瓦

在拍卖途中猛然回头张望

原来政府要为

昨天的贪婪和今天的债务买单

于是资本主义的光环上

突然挂上了一串

社会主义般的掌声

你是否已经领悟了

现实和理想的矛盾

四十五年前的梦想

实现得不算太晚

将被放平的白宫桌子上

有许多东西就此可以放直

而混杂在你身上的血液

是否多元了你说话的角度

还有人希望

你有地球的眼光

它甚至能驾临国家的视力

但是

创造了历史的大牌啊

你是否已领悟了

两种生命无休止的纠缠：

无论在哪一块国土上

富人和穷人的想法

体制般的差异难以相容

2008.11.5．

To Barack Obama

Having carried off the financial commandos

Who were sprawled all over Wall Street

America shuffles its cards again

And voters venture to turn up

An unprecedented royal card

But you, the figure on that card

Immediately take on your shoulders

The weight of capital’s shaky edifice

While a bandoleer of Iraqi grenades

Dangles around your waist

How many months

Of dismantling will it take before

You can advance under light armament?

The bricks and mortar of real estate

En route to an auction turn and gawk

To see if the government will pay up

For yesterday’s greed and today’s debt

And so above the halo of capitalism

Do we see a ring of socialist hands clapping?

Have you already been enlightened

To the clash of real and ideal?

After forty-five years it is not too late

To make dreams come true

Many papers are ready for tidying up

On the soon-to-be leveled Oval-Office desk

And the hybrid blood in your veins

Cannot help but pluralize

The views you express

There are also people who hope

You can see from the earth’s perspective

And even pilot a nation’s vision

And yet

Oh history-making royal card

Have you already been made to realize

That two kinds of life are endlessly tangled?

On the soil of any nation

The clashing views of rich and poor

Are entrenched like an institution

                           Nov. 5, 2008

                           Tr. by Denis Mair