Tom Chandler is the poet laureate of Rhode Island. He is the author of four books of poems, and is a professor of creative writing at Bryant University.

汤姆-羌德勒是美国罗得岛州的桂冠诗人。他出过四本诗集，现为布来恩大学创作班教授。

祖籍中国山东烟台，自小随父母移居香港，毕业于香港中文大学。曾居住美国多年，现定居山东青岛。

Ben Kiang was a native of Yantai,Shandong,China. He moved to Hong Kong in his childhood with his parents and graduated from Hong Kong Chinese University. He has lived in the United States for many years and now lives in Qingdao,Shangdong,China.

Hard Music

努力的乐章

The hammers of the builders 
of the house across the street

sometimes fall by accident inside 
the same beat, as if the rhythm 

of our separate work can  
melt without our knowing 

into something far sleeker 
than our laboring lives

and I wonder if the carpenters 
are happy in themselves when 

they realize how they improvise, 
how the nails bite the wood 

to such natural jazz, the house 
rising tall in grace because of hard 

music, lifting up its chimneyed head 
and shoulders to the sky.
			

对面房子建屋工人的大铁锤
有时候会不经意地落下在
同样的敲击中
就好像我们
不同的工作韵律
不知不觉地融入在
比我们的劳动生命更为圆润之中

而我想知道
木匠们对他们自己可会很开心
当知道他们的创意
当钉子如何依着天然爵士的乐声咬在木材上
房子因为努力的乐章
在优雅中高高地耸立起来
抬起它烟囱的头和肩膀
向着天空