轉載自〈聲音教育計畫〉

 http://voiceseducation.org/content/william-marr-chinese-american

美國華裔詩人非馬

William Marr (Chinese-American)

William Marr was born in 1936 and educated in Taiwan. He came to the United States in 1961 and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University in 1963 and his PhD degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1969. After twenty seven years with Argonne National Laboratory, he retired from his engineering profession in 1996 to devote his full time and energy to his true passion -- art and poetry.

Dr. Marr has published more than one hundred technical articles, ranging from nuclear reactor safety to electric hybrid vehicle development. He has also published in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Hong Kong, thirteen volumes of poetry and one book of essays, all written in his native Chinese language under the pen name Fei Ma, and several books of translations of contemporary American and European poetry. His first book of poems in English, Autumn Window, published by Arbor Hill Press in 1995 (with second edition in 1996) was greeted with critical acclaim and he was hailed as one of the collectible Chicago poets. His poems appear in over one hundred anthologies -- including 300 Best New Poems 1917- 1995, published in Taiwan, and 300 Best Chinese New Poems, published in Mainland China -- and are included in high school and college textbooks of Chinese Literature in Taiwan and Mainland China. Some of his poems have been translated into other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Slavic and Romanian. He has also edited and published several anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese modern poetry.

Considered one of the world's best contemporary poets writing in Chinese, Dr. Marr's poetry has enjoyed wide readership in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Mainland China, and North America. He has received numerous awards, including three from Taiwan for his poetry and translations. He has served in the capacity of editorial advisor and poetry contest judge to several prominent Chinese poetry journals and online poetry forums on the Internet.

War Arithmetic

Both sides claim
 numerous enemies have been killed
 Both sides declare
 we've suffered no losses

Nobody understands
 the arithmetic of war
 Only the fallen
 know the number

戰爭的數字

 雙方都宣稱
 殲敵無數
 雙方都聲明
 我方無損失

 誰也搞不清
 這戰爭的數字
 只有那些不再開口的
 心裡有數

Inspection

The cloudy sky, turned away
 by the sunglasses on the reviewing stand
 falls heavily on our faces

The final war has ended
 so we now march toward the first

檢閱

有台上睥睨的墨鏡

便有台下陰天的臉

最後的戰爭已經結束

現在我們齊步邁向最初

Message of Spring

Someone is peddling peace on the streets
 in an unseasonal spring

The last flock of bombers have sown their seeds
 and gone
 now it's time for frozen hopes
 to sprout

春天的消息

不合季節的春天

有人在沿街叫賣和平

最後一批B-52撒完種走了

冰封的希望開始萌芽

Still Life

the bird
 and the gun

 stare at
 each other

see who's
 the first
 to blink

靜物

槍眼

與

鳥眼

冷冷

對視

看誰

更能

保持

現狀

Heaven and Earth

In order to shoot
 an invading bird
 they define an air space
 with searchlights

In order to shoot
 a fleeing compatriot
 they erect a paradise on earth
 with tall walls

天上人間

為了射殺

一只入犯的

小鳥

他們用探照燈

在天上

劃定領空

為了射殺

一個逃亡的

同胞

他們用鐵絲網

在地上

圍建樂園

Tag:
Voices Education Project
Reflective Writing and the Arts
William Marr
Chinese-American poet
War Arithmetic
Inspection
Message of Spring
Still Life
Heaven and Earth