Michael Guerin

《夏日-六月與七月》
Author: 劉如芳 Claire Liu

柴可夫斯基的四季-六月，
是夏日船歌。
雙槳輕盪，
夏夜輕風，
石圓如卵，
垂柳漪漪。
小調，鬱鬱滄滄，
大調，仲夏回憶。
在河畔灌木叢裡似螢光
閃爍，
住著〈仲夏夜之夢〉調皮的帕克，
點亂鴛鴦譜，仇人變戀人。
 
時序迎來七月。
濕熱膨脹了肺，
凝滯如休止符，
讓人期待一個爽快。
而
午後雷陣雨總是像
清涼眼藥水，
讓夜空如眸的星子閃閃發光，
讓人以為
自己被矯正了視力，
其實只是大自然矯正了人的
烏煙瘴氣。

Summer – June and July – in Taipei

by Claire Liu
Translation: Claire Liu / Yenyi Juo
 
Tchaikovsky’s Four Seasons – June,
is a summer barcarolle.
The oars gently sway
in the summer night breeze.
The pebbles smooth as eggs,
The weeping willows caress
In minor key, melancholic,
in major key, midsummer memories.
In the bushes by the riverbank,
where fireflies flicker,
lives mischievous Puck from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”
toying with romance,
turning enemies into lovers.
 
With the arrival of July,
The humid heat expands the lungs,
stagnant like a rest symbol,
makes one long for refreshment.
And
afternoon thunderstorms are
cool eye drops,
the stars in the night sky sparkles,
misleading one
into believing that one’s eyesight has been corrected,
when in fact it’s just one’s miasma
that’s been cured by nature.

Introduction:
This poem was composed in June 2022, before my arrival in the United States to pursue a degree in Speech-Language Pathology. It captures the essence of summers from my past in Taipei City, blending memories and emotions with a
dash of imagination and life’s flavors in a subtle manner. The Chinese language differs greatly from English, as a single word can convey multiple meanings and evoke various sceneries. This enables montage-like images to be conveyed with brevity. This telegraphic language is a common characteristic found in Chinese poetry. 

서시

윤동주

죽는 날까지 하늘을 우러러
한 점 부끄럼이 없기를,
잎새에 이는 바람에도
나는 괴로워했다.
별을 노래하는 마음으로
모든 죽어 가는 것을 사랑해야지
그리고 나한테 주어진 길을
걸어가야겠다.

오늘 밤에도 별이 바람에 스치운다.

Prelude

Dong-ju Yun (1917-1945)

Let me have no shame
Under the heaven
Till I die
Even winds among the foliage
Pained my heart
With a heart that sings of the stars,
I’ll love all dying things
And I must fare the path
That’s been allotted to me

Tonight also
The winds sweep over the stars

Dong-ju Yun is a poet who wrote one of the most popular poems in modern Korean literature. He protested against Japanese Invasion/Occupation back in the early-mid 1900s through writing meaningful poems that represented many Koreans’ 한 (Han; could be translated into “emotional longing for justice”).

Contributor: HaeJi Lee