The Inheritance

By Li-Young Lee

李立揚是一位美國詩人。他出生于印度尼西亞雅加達，父母是華人。他的外曾祖父是袁世凱。他的母親是袁克煥的女兒袁家英。

Mother, your hair

has fallen

for the last time,

and I can’t raise it up.

And I can’t put it down.

I can’t leave it on the ground.

The ground is too crowded with the living,

too teeming with the dead.

I can’t store it in the sky. The sky’s too full

of birds and clouds and airplanes.

And the seas are full of mountains

and creatures and ships coming and going.

And, as long as earth turns,

all of the seasons are full of days.

There’s no place to lay your hair down.

Sleep won’t have it.

Your hair whispers too many secrets and stories.

Night doesn’t want it.

There are no stars your hair won’t swallow.

When you were alive,

you gathered it, bound it, and piled it,

to balance on the top of your head.

A small black urn, it shone.

Later, it shone white.

But your hair has come undone

once and for all time,

and what was one

now is many.

What started at your crown

now has no beginning.

What stopped at your waist

now has no end.

Now can’t be collected or dispersed.

Now neither story nor song can comb or weigh.

Now has no measure or address.

Now can’t be counted or left out.

And I can’t carry it.

And I can’t put it down.

This is drawn from “I Ask My Mother to Sing: Mother Poems of Li-Young Lee.”

Published in the print edition of the June 2, 2025, issue.

Li-Young Lee received the 2024 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. His books include “The Invention of the Darling” and “I Ask My Mother to Sing.”

參考譯文：

母親，您的頭發

最后一次落下，

而我無法將它扶起，

也無法將它放下。

我不能把它留在地上。

地上太擠了，擠滿了生者，

也擠滿了亡靈。

我不能將它藏在天上。天空太滿，

滿是飛鳥、云朵與航行的飛機。

而大海里也堆滿了山巒、

生靈，還有往來的船只。

只要大地繼續轉動，

四季便都充滿了日日夜夜。

沒有地方，能讓您的頭發安放。

睡眠不肯收留它，

您的頭發低語著太多秘密與故事。

黑夜也不要它，

沒有星辰能逃過它的吞沒。

您生前，

將它梳攏、束緊，高高盤起，

頂在頭頂，

像一只黑色的小甕，閃著光。

后來，它閃著白光。

可如今，您的頭發

終于徹底松散，

曾經的統一，

如今變成無數。

起始于您頭頂的，

如今沒有起點。

止于您腰際的，

如今沒有盡頭。

如今無法再被收攏或散開，

再沒有故事或歌謠能梳理或衡量。

如今無法被計量，也沒有歸屬之地。

如今無法數清，也無法忽略。

而我，無法承載它，

也無法放下它。

說明：本號刊發來自各方的文章，是為了獲得更全面的信息，不代表本號支持文章中的觀點。由于微信公眾號每天只能推送一次，無法即時更新，因此，本站目前在騰訊新聞發布最新的文章，每天24小時不間斷隨時更新，請收藏以下地址（請完整復制），隨時刷新：

https://news.qq.com/omn/author/8QIf3nxc64AYuDfe4wc%3D