What do you think of my new glasses

你们觉得我的新眼镜怎么样？

I asked as I stood under a shade tree

我站在树荫下问道

before the joined grave of my parents,

在我父母的坟墓前

and what followed was a long silence

回答我的是一片长久的沉默

that descended on the rows of the dead

笼罩着一排排死者

and on the fields and the woods beyond,

和更远处的树林与田野，

one of the one hundred kinds of silence

据说中国人的信仰里，

according to the Chinese belief,

有100种沉默

each one distinct from the others,

每一种都区别于其他，

but the differences being so faint

那些微妙的差异

that only a few special monks

只有少数几位特别的僧侣

were able to tell them all apart.

能将它们全部区分开来。

They make you look very scholarly,

它让你看起来很有学问，

I heard my mother say

我听到母亲这么说

once I lay down on the ground

当我躺倒在地

and pressed an ear into the soft grass.

一只耳朵贴近柔软的草坪。

Then I rolled over and pressed

然后我翻了个身，

my other ear to the ground,

把另一只耳朵贴在地面，

the ear my father likes to speak into,

我父亲喜欢对着说话的那侧耳朵，

but he would say nothing,

可他什么都不肯说，

and I could not find a silence

我找不到那种沉默

among the 100 Chinese silences

在中国的100种沉默中

that would fit the one that he created

应该有一种匹配他所创造的

even though I was the one

即使我就是那个人

who had just made up the business

刚刚编造了这件事

of the 100 Chinese silences-

有关中国的100种沉默——

the Silence of the Night Boat

夜船的沉默

and the Silence of the Lotus,

莲花的沉默，

cousin to the Silence of the Temple Bell

寺庙钟声之沉默的近亲

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

只是更加深沉、柔和，就像花瓣，在它最远处的边缘。