你们觉得我的新眼镜怎么样？

What do you think of my new glasses

我站在树荫下问道

I asked as I stood under a shade tree

在我父母的坟墓前

before the joined grave of my parents,

回答我的是一片长久的沉默

and what followed was a long silence

笼罩着一排排死者

that descended on the rows of the dead

和更远处的树林与田野，

and on the fields and the woods beyond,

据说中国人的信仰里，

one of the one hundred kinds of silence

有100种沉默

according to the Chinese belief,

每一种都区别于其他，

each one distinct from the others,

那些微妙的差异

but the differences being so faint

只有少数几位特别的僧侣

that only a few special monks

能将它们全部区分开来。

were able to tell them all apart.

它让你看起来很有学问，

They make you look very scholarly,

我听到母亲这么说

I heard my mother say

当我躺倒在地

once I lay down on the ground

一只耳朵贴近柔软的草坪。

and pressed an ear into the soft grass.

然后我翻了个身，

Then I rolled over and pressed

把另一只耳朵贴在地面，

my other ear to the ground,

我父亲喜欢对着说话的那侧耳朵，

the ear my father likes to speak into,

可他什么都不肯说，

but he would say nothing,

我找不到那种沉默

and I could not find a silence

在中国的100种沉默中

among the 100 Chinese silences

应该有一种匹配他所创造的

that would fit the one that he created

即使我就是那个人

even though I was the one

刚刚编造了这件事

who had just made up the business

有关中国的100种沉默——

of the 100 Chinese silences-

夜船的沉默

the Silence of the Night Boat

莲花的沉默，

and the Silence of the Lotus,

寺庙钟声之沉默的近亲

cousin to the Silence of the Temple Bell

只是更加深沉、柔和，就像花瓣，在它最远处的边缘。

only deeper and softer, like petals, at its farthest edges.