张子清是南京大学外国文学研究所教授，北京外国语大学华裔美国文学研究中心客座研究员。哈佛-燕京访问学者（1982-83），美国富布莱特访问学者（1993-94）。中国作家协会会员、全国美国文学研究会常务理事、中国比较文学学会会员。代表作：《20世纪美国诗歌史》（1995，1997）。主编 “华裔美国小说丛书”（译林出版社）、“西方人看中国丛书”（南京出版社）。

Ziqing Zhang is professor of Institute of Foreign Literature, Nanjing University, Nanjing, guest research Fellow of Chinese American Literature Research Center, Beijing University of Foreign Studies, Beijing. He was a visiting scholar as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University from 1982 to 1983 and Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University and The University of California at Berkeley from 1993 to 1994. His works include A History of 20th Century American Poetry (1995, 1997), Selected Poems of T.S.Eliot (1985), Selected American Poems (1993) and Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes (1998). He has co-authored Two Sides of the Globe: Contemporary Chinese and American Literatures and Their Comparison (1993) and On American New Pastoral Poems (2006). He has received many awards including The First Prize of Humanities Research Science Foundation of Nanjing University in 1998.

螺蛳

River Whelks

人类吃了螺蛳，
据说可以延年益寿，
这些默默的生灵，默默地
生长在江河、湖泊、池塘里，
一毫米一毫米地探索着
它们的看不见的前程。
在市场出售的筐篮里，它们
似乎羞于惹人注意而一声不吭，
在滚沸的锅中，它们仍然一语不发，
仿佛心甘情愿地为人类献身。
然而，人类除了为长寿大吃螺肉之外，
却从来没有一句赞赏它们。
也许螺蛳的呼唤他们从未听见，
因此，对于人类来说，
螺蛳是谦虚地生，谦虚地死，
从不为自我牺牲沽名钓誉，
一辈子也从不斗争反抗，而是保持
沉默，沉默，沉默，沉默，沉默。
			

It is said---
Man's life can be prolonged
If he eats river whelks,
The silent creatures who live
Silent in ponds, lakes and rivers
Moving millimeter by millimeter to explore
Their invisible future with their antennae.
And silence they keep when caught in the basket on market,
As if shy to attract others' attention.
Still silent they are when cooked in the pan,
As if willing to give their lives for man.
But he's never praised or thanked them for their merits except
to enjoy the delicious dish to prolong his life.
Perhaps their silent cries go beyond his hearing,
So it seems to him---
They're born modest, live modest, and die modest,
They've never claimed fame for their self-sacrifice,
And all their life they do not fight but keep
Quiet, Quiet, Quiet, Quiet, Quiet….

                  --- edited by Michael True
			

禅

Meditation

飞蛾们一只只快乐地死去，扑向火，
那是它们终生梦想的明亮的新星：
公螳螂被爱人吃掉，奉献给下一代，
在性高潮之前，它们却始料未及。

人类看着这一切，惊讶有余，智慧
穷尽，追逐镜花水月，喝着苦茶，
欲火中烧，付出比吸毒更高的代价，
在烈焰里烤，余烬里焙，等待答案。

菩萨微微一笑，答曰：“全都是狗屁！”
			

Moths die a happy death, rushing for the fire,
the nova they dreamed all their life.
And male mantises, on the brink of climax,
eaten by their sweethearts, sacred to the new generation.

Man watches more with wonder than wisdom
pursuing impossibility , drinking agony tea
at a price that burns, no better than an addict, stirred up,
rushing the flames, awash in afterglow, awaiting reply---

But Buddha smiles, and answers, “All is shit.”

                  --- edited by Rodger Martin