蔗尾蜂房

以詩諫今
--Trinidad Tarrosa Subido (1912-1994)，羅浩原 譯

闔上你們小法典的封面吧
暫停你們的法庭，你們這些指控自己親族的人
暫停吧，檢察官們、法官們、正直的書記們
置身於大地的法理學
沉思聖經的話：

申冤報應在我…
你們不要論斷人，免得你們被論斷…為什麼
看見你弟兄眼中有刺，卻不想自己眼中有梁木呢？
倘若你的弟兄得罪你，原諒吧…
憐憫人的人是蒙福的…

噢，跪下吧
與我們同跪一會兒，你們這些清高於我等之人
去照照你們的良心。現在是封齋期

假設你們今晚就會死（你們呀
並沒有好到能超脫生死，即便把那群可憐人的生命
剝奪去告慰這個國家）——
假設你們的靈魂排排站著被傳訊
在上天的法庭，你們敢斷言
等待你們的是怎樣的判決嗎？

此人殺了某某某…
此人宣示效忠過外來政權…
此人把自己兄弟出賣給敵人…
每個人都必須服刑懺悔——而你們把筆
墨水一蘸，刑罰一判，就這樣註定了他們的毀滅

可你們的靈魂又該怎樣回應這罪狀：
面對自己肉體的另一種替代性的慾念
去對一個姊妹島發洩仇恨
用火焰與硫磺去轟炸她的村莊
還以屠殺她的孩子們為榮？

你們，曾是順從與崇拜之人
對你們的神父發過誓，要服膺上帝的主權意志
而今卻去追隨凡間的天才們
他們能調動原子的能量——並篡奪這個地球——
你們又該怎麼為自己的忠誠與信仰辯白？

你們，一旦追隨了路西法
一旦赤裸裸地背叛了上帝神聖的信賴
一旦用違背人性的手段妄圖改造上帝的世界
又怎能蒙獲赦免？

要考量的，的確，不僅是當前的法典
還要深入探問良心，並去詳讀
生前就註定的永恆的道德觀

噢，地上的凡人，你們總是這麼膩著泥土
對大地擁有的資源如此妒羨
你們無法看見那個更豐饒的國度
超脫於土塊之外，以致如此認真計較
狹小的法條與微小的罪行
你們用放大鏡看凡人——與他的汙點
你們自身也蒙受了類似的污染

但你們抬頭看看南十字星
藉著純淨的星光，讓你們的靈魂脫胎換骨
去追索宇宙中眾多的橢圓銀河系
記下造物主完美的原則
在上帝的行星儀下，在夜裡
別考慮原子與元素
而去萃取神聖的精義
讓理智臣服於這種化學變化

然後接受你們的同胞
與你們一樣，皆親附於上帝…

（1946）

Trinidad Tarrosa Subido, Private Edition: Sonnets and Other Poems, Philippines: Milestone Publications, 2002, pp.83-86.



Poem for today
--Trinidad Tarrosa Subido (1912-1994)

Shut then the lid upon your little laws;
Pause in your course, you who indict your kin;
Pause, prosecutors, judges, righteous scribes;
Lay by the jurisprudence of the land,
And ponder on the Word:

Vengeance is mine…
Judge not, that ye be not judged…And why
Beholdest thou the mote within thy brother’s
Eye and considerest not the beam that is in thine?
And if thy brother trespass against, forgive…
Blessed are the merciful…

O kneel
A while with us, ye Holier-than-We,
And look into your Conscience. It is Lent.

Suppose you were to die tonight (you are
No less a mortal than the wretch whose years
You have forfeited to appease the state) —
Suppose your spirit were to stand arraigned
Before the High Tribunal, can you tell
What Verdict there awaits?

This man had killed…
This sworn allegiance to an alien power…
This one betrayed his brother to the foe...
Each must meted penance — and your pen
Dips in, and sentences, and seals his doom.

How would your spirit answer to the count
That in the flesh with a vicarious lust,
It had beamed hatred on a sister-isle,
Bombed fire and brimstone on her villages,
And gloried in the slaughter of her sons?

You, once a subject and a worshipper,
Sworn with your fathers, to the Sovereign Mind,
Adherent now to mortal geniuses
Who pow'r the atom — and usurp the globe —
How shall you prove your fealty and faith?

How be absolved who, after Lucifer,
Have plain betrayed the sacred trust of God,
Ambitioning to redesign His world,
With ends subversive to humanity?

Consider, yea, not only current codes
When probing into conscience, and peruse
Eternal mores, prenatally ordained.

So close you keep, O earthman, to the earth,
So jealous of resources potent there,
You cannot see the richer commonwealth
Beyond the clod; so soberly concerned
With petty ordinance and petty guilt,
You magnify a mortal — and his taint,
Your own self tainting by propinquity.

But lift your vision to the Southern Cross,
And by its purest star, your spirit molt;
Trace the ellipses of the Universe,
Mark then the Maker's perfect principles;
Under God's planetarium, in the night,
Discount the atoms and the elements,
Abstract the essence of divinity
And to its chemistry submit the sense.

And be persuaded that your brethren are,
Even as you, affinitied to God…

(1946)