天堂的通道 / The Passage to Heaven

by Xue Di, translated by Wang Ping and Keith Waldrop

我远远看见他
睡眠是一辆
许多座位空着的
窄长车子。我看见我
坐着，前往一个地方
半路上，在左边
我看见他细细地
展开：神秘的赭红
桔黄，几乎使我醒来
天堂就在我的感觉
后面，就差一点点
如果车子开快一点
或者完全停住
也许我会成为
唯一的一个：看见天堂
然后返回。我无法告诉
人们，那条通道怎样
使我在半夜幸福地
醒来。车子开到终点
热带的地方--
我在逐渐醒来时想念
两个我爱的女人

I see him from a distance. Sleep
is a long narrow train with
many empty seats. I see myself
sitting, traveling somewhere
Along the way, on my left
I see unfold, meticulously, a
mysterious orange and ochre scape. I
almost wake up
Heaven is just back of my
eyes, almost as if — the train moving
just a bit faster or
stopping — I might become
the first person to see heaven
and return. I can't tell you
how that passage
woke me at midnight and made
me happy. The train reaches its
destination in the tropics. I'm
waking slowly and longing for
two women I love

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Xue Di was born in Beijing. He is the author of four volumes of collected works and one book of criticism on contemporary Chinese poetry in Chinese. In English translation, he has published five full length books and four chapbooks. His work has appeared in numerous American journals and anthologies and has been translated into several languages. Xue Di is a two-time recipient of the Hellman/Hammett Award, a recipient of the Artemis A. Joukowsky fellowship through Brown University, and a recipient of the Lannan Foundation Fellowship.

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