A Letter from International Waters
(Love, I’m on international waters

          lying on the pale blue deck

          breeze touching the back of my bent knee

          thinking, ‘I belong to no one’

          touching my cheekbones, two hanging cliffs
          A showing-off of local traditions just started

          I realise I despise those photo-taking

          tourists, on the beach, on those pure

          salt crystals. It sends shivers down my spine when I think of the distinct

          venation pattern of each of the three thousand plants on the island

          it makes me detest those ungrateful people more

          as if I have never loathed them before 
          Yet I’m not one of their opposites

          drifting on international waters, I belong to none

          those who have had my everything

          changed their mind — I discover that hermit crabs

          are born at sunrise and die at sunset, white pearl oysters

          spend their whole lives looking after their pearls, what can I care about?

          A bottle of fine wine spilt over night, not a single drop left
          On international waters, a world without rules

          sun glares everywhere, washes over the old paint on the deck

          now and then a tiny rainbow shines, I’m lying in

          a quiet pale blue, decide that I’ll give up

          the home I remembered, built in a brick crevice anyway

          when winter comes, that house will shake into a bone.

          In fact one year ago, I had frequently been having sea dreams

          at that time I was still one of the opposition, dissident,

          fighting against all confronting dreams
          Now, let she and him fight

          I’m on international waters, a world

          without rules, everyone is no one, everyone can’t be bothered

          becoming his/herself, the whole sea is ringing —

          all quiet above the waves)
Love, I’m the one who has had you

          now writing you poems in the gaps between bricks

          having not seen anything described in your letter
May 21, 2002

Zhanchun Yuan, Beijing


公海來信
（親愛的，這是公海

          我趴在灰藍色的甲板上

          風吹過深陷的膝窩

           「誰都不屬於」，我想

          我摸自己的顴骨，摸到兩塊懸崖
          賣弄的民俗剛剛開始

          我發現那些旅遊拍照的人

          是那麼可惡，在沙灘上，純潔的

          晶體鹽上。想到島上的三千種植物

          絕不雷同的葉腺，我就戰慄

          就更恨那些不知好的人

          好像我從前不曾恨過他們
          但我也不屬於和他們相反的人

          我遊蕩在公海，我不是誰的

          那保存過我的一切的人

          又改了主意——我發現寄居蟹

          朝生晚死，白貝殼用一輩子

          愛惜自己的珍珠，我又能愛惜什麼

          美酒一夜打翻，半滴，不留
          這是公海，一個毫無規則的世界

          陽光四處瞧著，衝刷過殘油的甲板

          偶爾閃出小巧的彩虹，我趴在一處

          安靜的灰藍色中，突然決定死心

          記憶中的家，不過砌在磚頭縫裡

          冬天一到，那樓就抖成根白骨。

          事實上一年以前，我就開始頻頻夢見大海

          那時，我還屬於那種相反的人，抗著不順從

          抗著所有對峙的夢想
          現在，讓她和他抗去吧

          我到了公海，一個沒有規則的

          世界，誰都不是誰，誰都懶得

          成為自己，一海的嗡嚶——

          浪花上一片寂靜）
親愛的，我就是那個保存過你的人

          現在，在磚頭縫裡給你寫詩

          未曾見過你信上的一切
2002.5.21  展春園


Poetry in the Mist
for Huang Jing
reaching up, you’re still in the mist

bending down to touch the stones, still in it

fleeing through an earth-crack, mist trails all your way

you had a me, I had myself
the universe is having green plums

cores casually spat out

are our bright days
in the mist throwing stones and breaking mist

if you don’t break it

the world won’t blossom
April 2, 2010

Chai Wan


霧中詩
——給黃靜
舉起手臂，還是在霧中

彎腰摸石，也一樣

從地縫中遁去，霧也一路追來

你吃一個我，我吃一個自己
宇宙吃青梅

隨口啐核，

都是我們的白晝
在霧中扔石頭砸這霧

不砸

世界不開花
2010.4.2 柴灣


For M.Y.
I think of you when I play my guitar

I don’t want to join other people’s mourning

because that green wave burning in the candle light

can’t be split into two petals

impossible to part, impossible

it can only burn in different

gestures … the tiniest dance but also endless

passed through by waters from every ocean

gushing out from its green

heart, becoming smoke

separating those left behind
January 2011, Tsing Yi


給M.Y.
彈起吉他時我想起你

我不參與眾人的祭奠

因為那燒在燭光裡的綠浪

不能分成兩瓣

根本不能分開，不能

只能用所有的姿態

燃燒⋯⋯最小的舞蹈然而無限

被所有的海水經過

由它碧色的心

湧出，化為煙

分隔剩下的人
2011.1 青衣