When I Come Home in the Late Fall [當我在晚秋時節歸來]

When I come home in the late fall season
flurries of falling leaves have buried the paths of my hometown
mountain peaks look like a herd of lost camels
chests ornamented by the setting sun's copper bell
Packing an empty bag, my heart unusually heavy
but coming back in the dusk I am a little more relaxed
this way, on the road people I know won't recognize
my ashamed look sinking into clouds at sunset
My eyes follow a horse-cart loaded to the top with stone
creaking as it turns into the bushes
impressed in the mud the wheel-track makes me remember
the road I've walked through in storms of wind and rain
Over the years I roamed around the rivers and lakes
I laid waste to poetry of field and garden unsuccessful in everything
From the sumptuous Oriental banquet where green spring is freely spent
I carry back the empty names glued to bottles of booze
So, I dare not approach my gate to home lightly
as if it was a cracked piece of thin ice
O my straw hut of a mother! I sigh
I am the lamp most wasteful of oil
No more is this the carefree age of infancy
coming home playful, grabbing biscuits from the oven as I please
Now, no matter how weary
I can't wriggle into the sheepskin jacket of my dreams
And so, like a thief afraid of making the least noise
I bow down and slip out of the fence's shadow
The solitary water press, like a crane
wallowing in the courtyard of days gone by
Only the night, that old driver who turns a blind eye
murmurs to me: your vagrant life is fixed by fate
because, when you come back in late fall
flurries of falling leaves have already buried your path home

當我在晚秋時節歸來

當我在晚秋時節歸來
紛紛落葉已掩埋了家鄉的小徑
山峰像一群迷途難返的駱駝
胸前佩著那只落日 的銅鈴

背著空囊，心卻異常沈重
不過趁暮色過來要感到點輕松
這樣，路上的熟人就不會認出
我垂入晚霞中的羞愧的面容

目送一輛載滿石頭的馬車
吱吱啞啞地拐進一片灌木林
那印在泥濘中的車轍使我想起
我所走過的暴風雨中的路程

在那些闖蕩江湖的歲月
我荒廢了田園詩而一事無成
從揮霍青春的東方式的華宴中
我只帶回貼在酒瓶上的空名

所以，我不敢輕易靠近家門
仿佛那是一塊帶著裂縫的薄冰
茅屋似的母親吆！我嘆息
我就是你那盞最不省油的燈

已不再是無所顧忌的孩提時代
貪耍歸來，隨意抓起竈中大餅
現在，不管我是多麽疲乏
也不能鉆進羊皮襖的睡夢

於是，像怕弄出一點聲響的賊
我弓身溜出了籬笆的陰影
那只孤單的壓水機，鶴一般
沈緬在昔日的庭院之中

只有夜這翻著盲眼的占卜老人
在朝我低語：流浪已從命中註定
因為，當你在晚秋時節歸來
紛紛落葉已掩埋了家鄉的小徑