Yu Guangzhong's Wherever I Go 凡我至處 余光中 Poem by Frank Yue

Wherever I Go
- by Yu Guangzhong (1928-2017)
- Translated by Frank C Yue


Wherever I go, the sounds of clapping
Always arise around me like flocks of dove ascending.
Such riotous clapping!
White feathers upon white feathers flashing -
It shakes the hall holding a thousand men,
It dims and sways the lights then.
The sounds lash and lash at the drowning eddy -
At the centre of all this is me.
.....
But no dove-breeder am I,
The pleasing clapping, by and by,
Can reach my heart never.
All the beautiful white feathers,
All the beautiful feathers white -
Mere transient illusions bright!

Where I want to go, the place
Is a kind of no-man's-land in space;
A kind of Gobi on maps uncharted;
A kind of super-human climate;
Those who come are undaunted.
There's no dove flock, only vultures are these,
Hovering, hovering above the heads of the weakling,
Awaiting for the final feast.

Wherever I go,
Clapping always arise like flocks of ascending dove.
My heart's so painful and desolate, I know
The thousand or ten thousand doves that come along
Are but empty illusions -
Not one will accompany me on my journey long.



"凡我至處" 余光中 (1928-2017)

凡我至處，掌聲必四起如鴿羣，
騷動的鴿羣，白羽白羽紛紛
震動千人的大廳堂，搖撼燈光，
聲浪冲激溺人的迴流，
我是漩渦的中心。（略）

但我不是養鴿人，掌聲悅耳
傳不到我內心，看白羽翩然 翩然白羽，
皆剎那的幻景。
我要去的，是一種無人地帶，
一種戈壁，任何地圖不記載，
一種超人的氣候，懼者不來，
是處絕無鴿羣，只有兀鷹
盤盤旋旋在弱者的頭頂
等爭食的一攫。　

凡我至處，
掌聲必四起如鴿羣，我的心
痛苦而荒涼，我知道，千隻，萬隻
皆是幻象，一隻，也不會伴我遠行