PRELUDE

By J. M. Yates（USA)

Tr. Hong Yun (Canada)

Black trees on the shore

Of the sky.

Behind them,

A quiet lightning, winking.

White roots, fork

After fork, divide

My dark earth.

It's trouble overhead,

And here I am, whatever,

Armed with the mandible of a beetle.

前奏

文/叶兹（美国）

译/红韵（加拿大）

黑色的树木

爬上天空之岸

它们身后

安静的闪电眨了一下眼

银白树根开叉

开叉之后

又将我黑暗的大地分成两半

这是天上的麻烦

我在这里，不管怎样

用甲壳虫的下颚把自己武装了起来

【诗人简介】叶兹（1938-2019）: 出生于美国密苏里州，密西根大学比较文学博士。他的作品面很广，涉及诗歌，小说，戏剧，翻译，哲学散文等诸多领域。他得奖无数，包括有名的ＨＯＰＷＯＯＤ奖（诗歌和戏剧两项）及密苏里大学的终生成就奖。著名的美国戏剧家阿瑟米勒对他赞赏有加，称他在危险的主题和对话方面“无所畏惧”。他的作品已被翻译成多种东方语言和几乎所有的西方语言。他曾在美国和加拿大多所大学做教授，也当过伐木工人，摩托车赛车手，电台主管，摄影师，出版商，甚至监狱看守等。退休后他和他的中国太太在他们的温哥华家里教授语言（他翻译１７种文字）及其它课目直至2019年四月去世。

J. Michael Yates (1938-2019) was born in the Ozak Mountains of Missouri and did graduate degrees at the Universities of Missouri and Michigan. He was a widely published author of poetry, fiction, drama, translations, and philosophical essays. His works has been translated into most of the western languages and several of the eastern ones, and his drama for radio, television, and stage had been produced both nationally and internationally. He had won many literary prizes, including the Major Hopwood Awards (both poetry and drama the same year) and the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and Sciences from University of Missouri. Arthur Miller called him “fearless in matters of dangerous themes and dialogue.” He taught many universities in the United States and Canada, and his last rank as a university professor was Distinguished Professor. He had also been a logger, a motorcycle racer, a broadcast executive, a commercial photographer, and a Maximum Security Prison Guard and SWAT team member. He and his Chinese wife taught languages (he translated 17 languages), history of ideas, and science in their Vancouver home until he passed away in April 2019.  

【诗人/译者简介】红韵，网名：寄北，上海第二军医大学MD，加拿大New Brunswick大学PhD，多伦多大学Post-Dr. 现居温哥华。写作已有些时日，仍属业余爱好。