Yu Guangzhong's Muslin Net 余光中的「紗帳」

Another poem I translated during my book selling on Sunday morning is Yu's "Muslin Net". Here it is.

紗帳                                               Muslin Net

小時候的仲夏夜啊                      In childhood mid-summer nights,

稚氣的夢全用白紗來裁縫          All childish dreams were costumed in white muslins

圓頂的羅帳輕輕地斜下來          Round topped net lightly lowered at an angle

星雲    的洞細孔                      Tiny axial holes of    star clouds

仰望着已經有點催眠                  a bit drowsy already upon their gaze 

而捕夢之網總是密得                  The dream catching net always so dense

飛不進一只嗜血的刺客              Not allowing a single flight of bloodthirsty killers 

--黑衫短劍的夜行者                   --night riders in black shirts and daggers

只好在外面嚶嚶地怨吟              hissing their complaints only out there

卻竦得放進月光和樹影              too agitated to let in moonlight and tree shadows

幾聲怯怯的蟲鳴裏                      wrapped in a few timid hums 

一褸禪味的蚊香                          a twirl of zen like mosquito incense smoke

招人入夢，向幻境蜿蜒     drawing people into dreams, zig zagging towards fantasy land

 

一睜眼                                           Opening one's eyes

赤紅的火霞已半牀。                   A crimson cloud of fire over half the bed already. 

 

I like the way he reminisces about the times when he was still a child, imagining things within the mosquito net and not waking up until the sun was already high up dyeing half his bed red with its morning light, especially his image of "a crimson cloud of fire", contrasted with the white muslin mosquito net and the way that one falls asleep by gazing too long at something, in this case, the mosquito net, probably, half from boredom and half from fatigue.