Ever since my middle-school days, when my brother showed me "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I have loved poetry. That is one of the reasons I decided to major in English Literature when I first came to BYU in 2002. Then, in 2004, God sent me to Taiwan to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the (Mandarin) Chinese language.
That said, now that I am a poetaster and aspiring professional translator, I think it only natural to start a blog of translated Chinese poems to help Westerners appreciate the succinct beauty of the Chinese language a little more than they do.
When I was visiting Zhong Shan University in Gaoxiong, I met a certain fellow named Yu Guang-zhong. At the time, I had no idea I was speaking to a very renowned and respected poet, and I'm sure he was at least a little annoyed about our complete ignorance in regards to who he was.
At any rate, I feel compelled to use one of Mr. Yu's poems as my first translated text here. Enjoy!
大家好！欢迎来我的博克！
我在中学的时候，我哥哥把亨利·沃茲沃思·朗費羅写的一首“生活诗篇”给我看。从那天一直到现在，我都喜爱看诗。因此，我2002年来杨百翰大学读书时，我决定了要主修英文文学。然后，我2004年收到天父的召唤去台湾传播福音。
因为我现在是外行诗人和专业翻译员，写中文诗篇博克是自然的。这样，希望我可以帮助西方人多一点享受中文的简洁美丽。
当我拜访高雄的中山大学时，我碰到一位姓余的男生。当时，我不晓得跟我讲话的是一位很有名很受人尊敬的诗人。他就是余光中。我猜他觉得我们对他这样完全无知至少有一点恼火。
因此，我觉得在我博克的第一次帖子里，翻译余先生的一首诗才好。希望大家会喜欢！
My Solidification
In this place, in this international cocktail,
I remain a chunk of ice that refuses to melt:
I maintain a subzero coldness
and the hardness of a solid.
I too was once very fluid.
I too loved to flow, and boiled easily.
I would slide down rainbows.
But China's sun is too far from me.
I have crystallized; I am transparent, hard,
and unable to return to the spring.
- Yu Guang-zhong
我之固体化
在此地，在国际的鸡尾酒里，
我仍是一块拒绝溶化的冰——
常保持零下的冷
和固体的硬度。
我本来也是很液体的
也很爱流动，很容易沸腾，
很爱玩虹的滑梯。
但中国的太阳距我太远
我结晶了，透明且硬，
且无法自动还原。
- 余光中
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