The Plumber is Here
The plumber is here
Having mentioned the relationship of poetry and reality
What could be more fitting than the plumber is here
For when a plumber appears before you
Behind him lies a vast body of analysis
Which on the whole is unintelligible to him (you call him and he comes—isn’t that how it goes?)
But on the whole is all too intelligible to you (and isn’t that why you called him?)
From time to time an experienced plumber will come with his apprentice
The kind whose knowledge of the craft is well nigh zero—
That zero the Indians invented
Which left the Greeks at sea
And which the Arab traders brought to China via the Silk Road
Together with spices and ivory—
That something from nothing
Full of holes
In any case you have a leak requiring immediate attention
And so the plumber is here
With his something-from-nothing apprentice
水電工來了
水電工來了
提到詩與現實的關係
還有比水電工來了更適合舉例的嗎
水電工出現在你面前的時候
後面有個龐大的論述
基本上他全都不瞭（你叫他來他也就來了吧）
基本上你全部都瞭（那是你叫他來的原因嗎）
資深水電工有時候會帶來他的學徒
學徒的那種從零開始——
希臘人不解的印度人發明
的那個零
阿拉伯商人經由絲路帶到中國的
連同香料和象牙——
無中生有
漏洞百出
反正漏著水
水電工就來了
帶著他無中生有的學徒
Translator: Steve Bradbury received a PEN translation fund grant for Salsa (a forthcoming Zephyr Press publication), a collection of 46 poems by the Chinese poet Hsia Yü. He lives in Taipei.
