Two Sonnets for the Cycle of Night

By Cheng Lie

I

August comes  with a blue  motley collection
no longer cares about the moisture recovering in the evening,
in Mt. Echu, faces of gods should be carefully realized
just as we scrutinize mossy leaves as smooth as ivory.

And the rhetoric of the grassland, is not in the past of time
but deep, solidified and hidden. Tibetans capture roads
mark with fire paint then push wooden post into ground
Intricate road is waiting, containing the whole guesses from cold wind.

Right now, everything is irreversible. In the garden of gods
the abyss built by marble is a closed area for both feet
sleepless man walking in Kass Valley will erase it secretly
whether it's the dell or the gold at full moon night.

A stone that has been discarded; a stone going all out
Destiny, Symbol, it comes where coming from and goes where to go.

II

As always, it comes down in a slow march
The open fields fills the folds on the ground,
it seems to be due to highland barley, but expresses the pure
Years long past, Chenrezig, Jampayang and Chenadorje

Rise and fall together with refined sentences from black iron hymn
to search for pre-arranged constellations of sunset.
ancient vows are simply circulating on a river.  On water surface,
there are namelists and villages that a conspirator wrote down.

At end of a song, silently, the tenacious riders reclaim
the last word of wilderness- cattle and sheep in one herding season.
This great extent of sturdy house spread out , inside it
the outlines of life can be seen through with a fine gain of salt:

A man and the timeline he can rule
Any mere mortal can do is only memory and forgeting.

2002/ translated by Chen Zihong

两首循环之夜的十四行诗

程烈

Ⅰ

八月带着蓝色的班驳掩至
不再理会日暮时复苏的潮气，
俄初山上众神的面孔需要细细体会①
正如细察地苔象牙般平滑的叶片。

而大草原的修辞学，不在时间当中的过去
深入、凝固又隐蔽。藏族人把道路一一捕捉
用火漆打上标记和符号，钉上草原的木桩
繁复的路径回旋等待，包含西风全部的猜测。

如今，万物皆不可逆转。在神祇的花园
大理石筑起的深渊是双脚的禁区
行走在卡斯的不眠者要将它秘密抹去②
无论是山谷还是月圆之夜的黄金

被丢弃的石头；孤注一掷的石头，
那宿命，那象征，自来处来，归去处去。

Ⅱ

一如既往，在缓慢的行进中回落
开阔的田畴填满了大地的褶皱，
像青稞所为，但表达了纯粹
在过去的岁月里，仙乃日，央迈勇，夏诺多吉③

以黑铁赞歌铭刻的警炼文字
一同升起，一同没落，搜寻日落排下的星座。
一条河流简单地循环着古老的誓言，
上面有同谋者早已写下的名单和村落。

一曲既终之所在，坚韧的骑手于无声中
收回旷野最后的词汇，一个季节的牛羊。
在一片根深蒂固的房屋里面
细微的盐粒透出生活基本的轮廓：

一个人以及他所统治的时间线
凡人所能做到的仅有记忆与遗忘。

2002年

①俄初：稻城山名。
②卡斯：即卡斯沟，在稻城，被称为“地狱谷”。
③仙乃日，央迈勇，夏诺多吉：稻城三座相邻的雪峰。