空灵的白螺壳
孔眼里不留纤尘，
漏到了我的手里
却有一千种感情：
掌心里波涛汹涌，
我感叹你的神工，
你的慧心啊，大海，
你细到可以穿珠！
可是我也禁不住：
你这个洁癖啊，唉！

请看这一湖烟雨
水一样把我浸透，
像浸透一片鸟羽。
我仿佛一所小楼
风穿过，柳絮穿过，
燕子穿过像穿梭，
楼中也许有珍本，
书页给银鱼穿织，
从爱字到哀字——
出脱空华不就成！

玲珑吗，白螺壳，我？
大海送我到海滩，
万一落到人掌握，
愿得原始人喜欢，
换一只山羊还差
三十分之二十八，
倒是值一只蟠桃。
怕给多思者拾起：
空灵的白螺壳，你
带起了我的愁潮！

我梦见你的阑珊：
檐溜滴穿的石阶，
绳子锯缺的井栏……
时间磨透于忍耐！
黄色还诸小鸡雏，
青色还诸小碧梧，
玫瑰色还诸玫瑰，
可是你回顾道旁，
柔嫩的蔷薇刺上
还挂着你的宿泪。

White Spiral Shell
Bian Zhilin

Vacant white spiral shell, there aren’t
Any grains of dust left in your eyelet.
Yet when in my hand, it has a thousand
Kinds of feelings: there are billows
surging in the centre of my palm
O, sea, I am deeply moved by your
Divine skill and blazing star,
You can be so fine to thread through
Beads! Yet I can’t help saying:
Hey, your cleanliness like this!

Behold, this lake of mist
Has soaked me like water,
Like soaking a fake of feather.
Like a small building, I let
The wind, the catkin and swallows
Be drilling me through like shuttles.
There might be curiosa in the building
And leaves shuttled through by whitebaits,
From the word “love” to the word “grief”—
I become hollow yet splendid!

Exquisite, white spiral shell, or I?
When delivered to the beach by the sea,
I’d like to be loved by some primitive
In case of falling into one’s grasp.
If I want myself to be exchanged
With a goat, the price ratio will be 30 to 2,
Yet I am still worth a flat peach.
I am afraid of being picked up by contemplator:
Vacant white spiral shell, you
Have stirred the tide of my worry!

I have dreamt of your waning:
The stone steps dripped through by raindrops,
The well railing jagged by a straw rope…
Time has been abraded through by patience!
Let yellowness return to the little chicken,
Let greenness return to the little phoenix tree,
Let rosiness return to roses.
Yet, look back at the roadside
On the thorns of the tender rosebush,
Your old tears are still hanging.