《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.