小島手記

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

                                  Percy Bysshe Shelley

在埃及開羅的吉薩驚嘆金字塔的壯觀巍峨，

這首大學上過的英文詩悄悄地從黃沙掩沒的記憶中，

驀地閃了出來。

時光無情鞭笞歷史的面容，

把可以留存的，

好似有諸多不可思議的，

不可啟齒的，

一言不發寫進那緊閉的雙唇。

而那些留存不了的，

任由強勁的黃沙，

侵襲吞噬。

我們都在這歷史包圍的大圈圈中，

被強迫推動著另一個，

又一個，

再一個，

小圈圈。