-- 怀念吴开晋教授

他们告诉我

您已离开了这地球

到另一个世界

去开始一种永恒的生活

但我明明仍在心中

听到您的笑声

看到您的笑容

当我摊开您厚重的论文著作

仿佛仍看到您站在讲台上

对万千学子谆谆教诲

但即使您真的已不在这人间

我想也不必过分哀伤

为您写悼歌

因为我记得一位教授宽慰的话

每个在世上度过丰实一生的人

都没有什么可遗憾的

你想贝多芬和莎士比亚

在临终时会不快活吗?

我依稀看到您

正含笑加入

这个行列

NOT A DIRGE

      -- in memory of  Prof. Wu Kaijin

I was told

that you left this planet

to start in another world

an eternal life

But somehow in my heart

I can still hear your laughter

and see your smiling face

When I open the volumes of your work

I see you standing right there on a platform

speaking to an enthusiastic crowd of students

Even if you are gone

I feel there's not much point 

in writing a mournful dirge

because I remember these comforting words from a professor

For one who has spent a fruitful life on earth

there's no reason to pity when he leaves this world

Do you think Beethoven and Shakespeare would feel unhappy

at the end of their lives?

I see you are now joining their ranks

with a smile

当拥塞的街道及摩天大楼

占据了旷野平原

汽车取代了奔驰的马匹

我们去哪里寻找牛郎

而当自动驾驶的汽车到处横行

司机这名词也会很快过时

取代它的

将是眼睛紧紧盯着手机

编造幻景的织女

The Cowboy and the Weaving Girl*

when crowded streets and skyscrapers

occupy all open fields

automobiles take the place of galloping horses 

where can one find a cowboy   

and when cars are driven by autopilots

the driver will become obsolete

in his place

will be a weaving girl

with eyes staring at her cell phone

fabricating a virtual mirage

* A Chinese love story between the Cowboy, a human, and the Weaving Girl, a fairy. They fell in love with each other, got married and had children, but were later forced to separate and became two stars across the Milky Way.  They were allowed to meet on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month each year, when flocks of magpies come to form a bridge over the Milky Way.