Vera Schwarcz is Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She is the author of seven books and over fifty articles on Chinese intellectual history and comparative memory studies, including Time for Telling Truth Is Running Out: Conversations with Zhang Shenfu, published by Yale University Press.

薇拉-施娃茨的中文名为舒衡哲, 生于罗马尼亚, 犹太人, 现任教于美国康州威斯理安大学, 并从事中国现代史研究。1980 年曾作为首批美国留学生在北京大学中文系学习。她曾出版过七本书。

王蒙（1934-） 当代作家。河北南皮人，生于北平。1953年创作长篇小说《青春万岁》。曾任《人民文学》主编、文化部长等职。作品被译成英、俄、日等多种文字在国外出版。他现任中国作协副主席。

Contemporary Chinese writer. He was born in1934 in Beijing and his hometown is Nanpi, Hebei. His first book of fiction "Long Live the Youth" was published in 1953. He was the former minister of the Cultural Department of China and the editor-in-chief of People's Literature. His has published dozens of books and a number of them have been translated into English, Russian and Japanese. He is now the vice chairman of China Writers' Association.

The Soul Is No Flat Terrain

灵魂不是一道平坦的风景

The soul is no flat terrain,
no round diamond
but a jagged shard
cutting roughly
into the tissue of our life.
It tears the skin of ease
and leaves you less at home
in body's house. The soul

is a dark haired lady
with worker's hand
kneading the stale dough of habit
over and over until it springs back,
the staff of life again.
The soul is a carpenter
who plans the new extension off the porch,
to stretch walls that hem us in, until
light dances alike
on grass and kitchen floor.
			

灵魂不是一道平坦的风景,
更没有闪光的宝石环绕  。
倒像是破碎的钜齿,
无情地切割
我们生命的纱罩,
随意撕裂我们的皮肤,
让你难得在家园里停歇,
你的灵魂不安于你的躯壳。

是个黑发的妇人,
用那劳动的双手,
搓揉着习性的陈年面酵。
翻来复去直到它发育为
生命的粮草和依靠。
灵魂还是一个木匠,
思谋着把门打开得畅快些, 
再把禁锢的围墙拆掉, 
把草坪上也在厨房的地板上, 
让同一个光明跳起舞蹈。
			

There Are Good Reasons To Hide The Light

有足够的理由隐藏光明

                           
There are good reasons to hide the light
because our eyes are weak
and would burn out
beneath an unclouded orb,
because when truth is in the thickets
we chase after it more vigorously,
because it astonishes the heart to realize,
later, the gift
that was here all along.
			

有很好的理由隐藏光线:
要不我们的嬴弱的双目,
就会在无云的苍穹下焚烧。
还因为如若真理处在丛林之中
它刺激着内心的追求,
于是我们的奋斗更加活跃。
而以后， 我们终会得到
上苍的恩赐─
从来就与我们一道。
			

Nocturnal Neighbors

与黑夜为邻

                           
"Take back the night" we cried
in our political youth,  and still 
darkness barked beyond 
a nameless enemy, harsh 
thorn in our shadow.

We did not have words yet
for the blossom of our solitude,
did not tend the soil of dreams,
did not rise early enough
to wink at kitchen lights,

the neighbor and his dog
just breaking winter's ice,
a Russian on the other side
no longer pensioned by red armies
makes his living delivering news.

No news this: the absolute silence,
a night hour when  you are not
wife or mother or victim,
night itself the neighbor
unclaimed by daytime kin.
			

那时候我们还年轻, 
我们呐喊: 把黑夜收回去!
而黑暗也在咆哮,
越过无名的敌人, 来到
我们的身旁洒下荆棘枯草。

对于从同一块土地上
生长起来的花朵夭夭,
我们有什么话可说?
我们本应当及早挺立, 
让每一扇窗子的光线闪耀。

邻居和他的狗,
已经破除了坚冰。
在另一边的一个俄国人
领不到军人的退休金养老。
于是维持生计靠送报。

在那样的夜间, 那时你还不是
人妻、人母、牺牲者,
完全的寂静里不会有什么消息
而与夜晚一体的邻人, 永远
不可能与白天一族在一起。