12月3日

時間陪我坐著
隱地 ( 1937~ )

坐著，時間陪我坐著。
我被「壞」驚嚇住了。
「壞」，我在想著人世間的「壞」，一切的「壞」。
時間是劊子手，它殺掉世上的一切。
荒謬的是，我又必須記得：時間孕育了一切。
一切，我們在世上擁有的一切，
都是禍福相連，悲喜同在。
時間是鐘，鐘擺非左即右，
它永遠讓我們在得失之間遺憾生命的不完美。
年輕的時候，我們控制時間、運用時間，
年老的時候，時間控制我們，我們只能隨波逐流。
年輕時候，沒有人感覺時間的流動，
到了老年，時光推移，像山一樣沉重，
它壓得我們喘不過氣來，
時間不再是慢慢的溜走，
而像一個跑步的巨人，它驅趕我們，
把光和美，自我們生命中抽走。

──選自《人生十感》

December 3

Time Sits with Me
Yindi (1937 - )
English translation: William Chong

Seated, time sits with me.

I am shocked by “destruction.”
“Destruction,” I think about the “destruction” in
the world, all that “destruction.”

Time is an executioner, killing everything in the
world. What is absurd is that I have to remember that
Time nurtures everything.

Everything, everything we possess in the world,
is conjoined in fortune and misfortune, sadness and
joy. Time is a clock; its pendulum either left or right,
always causing us to regret life’s imperfections
between our gains and losses.

In our youth, we control and make use of time;
in old age, time controls us, and we can only but
succumb. In our youth, no one feels the flow of time;
in old age, the passage of time has the weight of a
mountain, crushing us till we are out of breath.

Time no longer slowly slips away, but like a
running giant, chases after us, sucking away the light
and beauty from our lives.

── from Rensheng Shigan (Ten Reflections on Life)