The Inheritance

By Li-Young Lee

李立揚(yáng)是一位美國(guó)詩(shī)人。他出生于印度尼西亞雅加達(dá)，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(fā)

最后一次落下，

而我無(wú)法將它扶起，

也無(wú)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(niǎo)、云朵與航行的飛機(jī)。

而大海里也堆滿了山巒、

生靈，還有往來(lái)的船只。

只要大地繼續(xù)轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)，

四季便都充滿了日日夜夜。

沒(méi)有地方，能讓您的頭發(fā)安放。

睡眠不肯收留它，

您的頭發(fā)低語(yǔ)著太多秘密與故事。

黑夜也不要它，

沒(méi)有星辰能逃過(guò)它的吞沒(méi)。

您生前，

將它梳攏、束緊，高高盤(pán)起，

頂在頭頂，

像一只黑色的小甕，閃著光。

后來(lái)，它閃著白光。

可如今，您的頭發(fā)

終于徹底松散，

曾經(jīng)的統(tǒng)一，

如今變成無(wú)數(shù)。

起始于您頭頂?shù)模?/p>

如今沒(méi)有起點(diǎn)。

止于您腰際的，

如今沒(méi)有盡頭。

如今無(wú)法再被收攏或散開(kāi)，

再?zèng)]有故事或歌謠能梳理或衡量。

如今無(wú)法被計(jì)量，也沒(méi)有歸屬之地。

如今無(wú)法數(shù)清，也無(wú)法忽略。

而我，無(wú)法承載它，

也無(wú)法放下它。

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