无根　

河内和萨帕之间有清水板一样的稻田
没有两栋砖房连成一排。

我是说，没有三栋砖房连成一排的—-
瞧见没有，处于半睡状态可数不清楚，雨水将单子

罩在糖棕及其不受困扰的叶子上。
几小时前，我碰到一辆摩托车将猪捆在后座上，

远远望去，猪只有枣核那么大。
这种孤独无助会是无根的吗，因为脱离了地面？

无所谓。思想的居所在身内也在身外。
思想可以思考自身，将自己思考成形。

我使劲擦擦眼睛，将其磨损也不在乎。
我那惜字如金的嘴巴将其掌握的仅有几个外语单词都消耗了。

此刻，在卧铺车厢里，无处可抵达。
我吗？我只不过穿着旅行者的衣服，试试每个经过的城镇
是否合身。

作者 / [美国]詹妮·谢
翻译 / 武夷山

Rootless   　

Between Hanoi and Sapa there are clean slabs of rice fields
and no two brick houses in a row.

I mean, no three—
See, counting’s hard in half-sleep, and the rain pulls a sheet

over the sugar palms and their untroubled leaves.
Hours ago, I crossed a motorbike with a hog strapped to its seat,

the size of a date pit from a distance.
Can this solitude be rootless, unhooked from the ground?

No matter. The mind resides both inside and out.
It can think itself and think itself into existence.

I sponge off the eyes, no worse for wear.
My frugal mouth spends the only foreign words it owns.

At present, on this sleeper train, there’s nowhere toarrive.
Me? I’m just here in my traveler’s clothes, trying on each passing town for size.

Jenny Xie