香港中文大學英文系的出版社稍早前出版了英文文集《回望香港》(Looking Back at Hong Kong),聚集了一班曾經以香港為家,又或自覺屬於香港的異地人作家/詩人,書寫他們對香港的回望和記憶,在這個筋疲力竭混沌不清的時代,特別有意思。主持人聯絡上這本文集的編輯,香港作家詩人Nicolette Wong,透過視訊網聯,訪談了她照顧這本文集誕生的經歷、作為‘Hong Konger’的當下省思,和她自己寫作詩歌與音樂在各種空間上的關係,既文學,也社會,同時也窺探了香港作為一個亞洲城市,在純英語寫作上的歷史生態。Nicolette在節目中還誦讀了中英文詩各一,分別為紅紅的〈我城.廢墟〉和她自己的 'Smoke',附刊如下。音樂,她則選播了Thomas Lang的 'Don't Let me be Misunderstood' 和Mick Karn的器樂作品 'Dreams of Reason',別有隱喻興味;可惜編幅有限,後者未能全播。對題目有興趣的朋友,請分享轉傳,大家交流。
〈我城•廢墟〉刊登於《別字》,第25期,2020年2月。
Run from the smoke—island—city—home!
The first tears you shed on this highway
of terror—a cacophony of shots,
batons and shields crashing into bodies
and screams—the first rupture of an unheard pulse.
Tear off your masks. Move along. Who knocks
you down the flashlight onto concrete,
moving stills of broken wrists across the world’s
lens—What are you, braille scars blooming
into crevices of the spectator’s heart?
Run from the smoke—sirens—barricades—home!
Run for the waters that will not put out this fire—
Is your march rained in for the midnight raid?
Is it true what we heard, that the tunnel is
on fire? Another cluster of umbrella dances—
cross harbor—and further east, to the lion rock,
another? How do you make the crossing where
there is no exit—with your eyes closed, at gun point?
Pepper-smeared slogans: freedom, discordance.
Where do we meet?—Our voices will meet
in lyrics trampled on the run, in the coalescence
of rain, neons and resolve across the streets,
across the alleys, in the tear-shaped ribbons
pinned to our pulses, smoke-stained and whole.
Published in Bellingham Review Issue 72 (Spring 2016)