Yu Guangzhong's Vincent van Gogh.1 (余光中星光夜--梵谷百年祭之一)

Prompted by the various poems by Yu Guangzhong (余光中) introduced by fellow blogger Superman, my interest in his other poetic production was uncontrollably piqued. So during the lunch break, I surfed through the internet to look for information about him and his other poems. I was very surprised to find that Yu's father came from exactly the same village or county that my father came from i.e Wing Chun in Fujian (福建永春). When I looked at a photograph of the poet I was even more surprised that he had got almost exactly the kind of head that my paternal grandfather and my father had. All of a sudden, I felt an even closer affinity to him. So imagine my delight when I discovered one of his poems about another artist whose paintings have always fascinated me. That artist is the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. I can never forget the first time I saw his paintings in Paris and those that I saw in Amstersdam.  His colors were so bright that they seemed to leap out from the picture frame. His brush strokes were so powerful, his contrasts and the outlines so strong and forceful that I could hardly bring myself to believe my eyes as I observed the corrugated paints and lumps on the surface of the canvas. They were almost like scuptures! Presumably, Yu was equally struck. So he wrote a poem about the painter on the centenary of, I don't know whether it's the painter's birth or his death. Vincent van Gogh died in an asylum at the age of 37 in 1890. The Chinese poem was so beautifully written that I felt an immediate urge have it translated into English there and then. I do not care if it has been already been translated into English. If it has not been, then let me be the first one to do so. So here it is.    

 

星光夜--梵谷百年祭之一  Centenary Hommage

to Van Gogh's Starry Night  No. 1

 

當所有的眼睛,在天上,都張開    When all the eyes, in the sky, are open

而所有的眼睛,在地上,都閉起    And all the eyes, on earth, are closed

只剩下一雙,你的,在守夜            But a pair, yours, on a vigil

守著地上的夢,天上的光             Guarding the earth's dream, the sky's light

見證滿天燦亮的奇蹟                  Witnessing the miracles dazzling in the sky

一盤盤,一圈圈                             In trayfuls, in twirls

都轉成熱烈的漩渦,被天河         All turning in hot swirls,

滾滾的迴波吐出又吞進              Spat and swallowed by the Milky Way's undertow

肅靜的神諭終夜不停                  Noiseless oracles never ceasing in the night

邃藍的高穹下一頂草帽              A straw hat of the deep blue sky 

白燭插在帽沿的四周                  White candles standing upon its rim

一座崇拜的小祭壇,舉向             A tiny altar lifted

赫赫當頭的全部天啟                  To the overarching sky.

百年前的今晚,你的目光             A century ago tonight, your gaze 

曾經升入這一片星光                  Entered this sea of starlight

永不熄滅的煌煌天市                  A heavenly market ever bright

一場永不落幕的盛典                  A feast whereof the curtains never fall

敞向台下一代又一代                  To generations of those below the stage

來去太匆匆的觀眾                       Spectators hurryng to and fro in too much haste    

不,那夜只有你一人                      No, that night you were all alone

山底的小鎮在星光下                  The little town beneath the starlit hill

全睡著了,只有教堂舉起了塔尖 All asleep, only the chapel raising its steeple

坡上的柏樹揮舞著綠焰              The cypresses upon the slope waving green flames

陪你的燭光一同祈禱                  Praying with your candles

正如百年後我們的目光              like our gazes a century later

也升入這一簇星光,文生             rising too towards this cluster of starlight, Vincent

跟隨你一同默禱                          following your wordless prayers.