〈A City of Sadness〉— Taiwanese Film Poem 2

1
The harbor’s fog carries the smell of coal smoke,
covering the face of the sky.
Time, inside the radio,
rasps as it bleeds.
(History has no vocal cords.)
An infant
is born on a night of blackout.
Candlelight trembles,
like a shadow under interrogation.
The city holds its breath,
hiding the light inside the pocket of darkness.

2
The eaves of the Lin family home
press low upon fate.
The eldest brother’s name is erased by the glint of blades.
The second brother drifts in the southern war.
A family letter that cannot be delivered.
The third brother’s memory shatters into glass;
when he speaks, sharp fragments spill out.
Wen-ching’s silence is louder than bullets.
The camera shutter presses mute upon the world.
Images begin to grow sound,
while people gradually lose language.
The streets burn with fever at dusk.
The panicked footsteps of the crowd,
cold rain scorched by fire,
cries snapped apart by the wind,
fresh blood blossoms upon the walls.

3
“Taiwan! Shared by all to eat, ridden by all, loved by none!”
The city begins to lose its speech.
Twilight expands into a prison.
Names, one by one,
are swallowed by darkness amid gunfire.
Lights tremble like testimony.

Women hold up the house.
Tears feed time.
Their waiting grows silver hair,
strand by strand clinging to the scalp.
Rain falls over the mountain town; the sound of rain is gray.
Drop by drop, it falls upon names without gravestones.
The sea is still in the distance,
pretending that everything can be washed away by the waves.
Photographs yellow; time fades into a silent film.
Only the wind still, for those who fell before the gun barrels,
reads aloud the testimony again and again.

《悲情城市》

1
港口的霧，有煤煙的氣味
覆蓋天空的臉
時間在收音機裡
沙啞地淌血
（歷史沒有聲帶）

一個嬰兒
在停電的夜裡出生
燭火顫抖
像被審問的影子
城市屏住呼吸
把光藏進黑暗的口袋

2
林家的屋簷
低低地壓著命運
大哥的名字被刀光擦掉
二哥漂流在南方的戰爭
一封無法投遞的家書
三哥的記憶碎裂成玻璃
說話時，會流出鋒利碎片
文清的沉默，比子彈更響
相機快門，替世界按下靜音
影像開始長出聲音
而人，逐漸失去語言

街道在傍晚發燒
人群倉皇的腳步
被火燒過的冷雨
喊聲被風折斷
鮮血，在牆上開花

3
「台灣啊! 眾人食，眾人騎，無人疼 !」
城市開始失語
暮色擴大成監牢
名字在槍聲裡一個一個
被黑暗吞噬
燈光，證詞一樣顫抖

女人們撐起屋子
眼淚，餵養時間
她們的等待，長出銀髮
一根一根黏著頭皮
山城下雨，雨聲是灰色的
一滴一滴，落在沒有墓碑的名字上
海仍然在遠方
假裝一切，可以被海浪沖走