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Bai Ling 白靈
WHO’S RISING AND FALLING
誰主浮沉*
Translated by David van der Peet 范德培
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The wind is shaking the masts, the deck is heaving on the
waves
Who could possibly balance the ocean on the tip of his nose
In the mighty tempest, heaven and earth
Yet seem enveloped in violent desolation
Only our ship is valiantly
Resisting the black of the night
But no one knows how the ship feels, just like nobody
understands
How we, the sailors, feel
And the captain, proud and aloof, seems lost deep in curious
thought
Scribbling wildly on the nautical charts, drawing forceful
lines
Just a little bit closer, he says
And then we can get to the eye of the storm
The sailors in the hold are dizzy
As the vessel rocks and sways, I can hear the moon’s voice
close to my ear:
“I’m the true master of the sea!”
Strings of nightmares are born this way
Though my mind is in a whirl, like the ship’s prow my
dazed brow
Rises towards the heavens
Only to come down again with full force
Plunging into the vast ocean |
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From Bai Ling’s 白靈collection of poetry Ai yu ssi te chien-hsi 《愛與死的間隙》 (The Gap between Love and Death), Taipei: Chiuko Publishing, 2004, 114-116.
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