Taiwan&Masticadores // Editor: C. J. Anderson-Wu // Taiwan

“A Shipyard Worker’s Note 3” by Heh Shan-Qing

＊｛1973年10月20日〈父親的手腳〉｝ {October 20, 1973, “Father’s Hands and Feet”} 我終於返家探親了。午後，一陣暴風雨後，後尾園仔整條小溪澗都泛濫起來了。父親㩦着魚網，我拿著臉盆，跟隨在後，沿溪的下游溯溪而上，不久盆裡已蹦跳了許多的鯽魚、土鱔、吳郭魚。父親隨手撈起較嫩幼的小魚緩緩的放進湍急的溪流中，靜默佇立於溪側抽著菸，似乎靜靜在聆聽水流聲，又似乎在思忖着什麼事情。驀然，發現父親枯瘦的手腳被溪水浸白了，蒼白得彷彿父親坎坷的人生。天空又斜飄起細雨，天際突現一道奪目的彩虹，父子俩沿着小溪右側田埂走回。而黃昏的腳步也漸漸向這僻靜的農莊襲來。 I finally returned home to visit my family. In the afternoon, after a violent rainstorm, the entire stream behind the garden had overflowed. My father carried a fishing net, and I followed behind with a basin in my hands, wading upstream from…

“TRAITS OF HUMANITY” by Shafkat Aziz Hajam

I am the ocean that bears all bitter experiences. I am the brook that keeps flowing forward in spite of all hindrances. I am the candle that burns to light the surroundings. I am the cuckoo that, on seeing spring or summer in everyone’s garden, sings. Shafkat Aziz Hajam is a children’s Poet .He writes for…

“Keep up the Pace” by Sushant Thapa

The day greeted me,I was on rush.The day pulled outA smile from my pocket.I am busyTo recollectA secret sermonWhich has now beenA difficult confession.We met,We departed.The cruel skyIs a sign of mistakenSignature,A mark has been necessary,To leave behind memoriesLike a winter sun.Welcoming a celebration,A year awaits.Festivities are hopeful caricatureOf a secure remembrances,Life itselfIs its wheelThat…

“A Way of Reading Newspapers” by Yongbo Ma

I already knew quite a few characters lying on the kang, staring up at the ceiling pasted over with newspapers not only the black rivers of headlines but even some of the content came into view the newly pasted old newspapers gave off the faint smell of paste made from wheat flour in the 1960s, there…

“School of Art” by Sushant Thapa

I never dwelled afar.You knew the wayThrough the woods.Stars felt saferAt a distance;Brightness can hurt.I wake upTo kiss the sun.The orange dawnIs my fruit.Admiration is a kingdomOf warmthWhen the reality is an unsoughtDisclosure.The days restLike winter chills.What wakes upIs a dream ofMaking realityA better school of art. Sushant Thapa has published Nine books of English Poems…

“Two Cats” by Yongbo Ma

Two cats lie on the grass at the edge of sunlight, on a crumpled old newspaper their paws press down on a blurred portrait of a foreign leader the two cats do not look at this flat, vulgar face instead, they gaze at the glimmers in the shade of the trees Movement grows…

“I LOVE THE PAINS” by Shafkat Aziz Hajam

I love the pains I’ve while lightning the dark mind. I love the pains I’ve while showing the way to the blind. I love the pains I’ve while fighting for the right. I love the pains I’ve while relieving someone of their plight. I love the pains I’ve while proving the veracity. I love the…

“A Shipyard Worker’s Note 3” by Heh Shan-Qing

“Thirst-quenching View” by Sushant Thapa

Maybe a wordWill speak to you.Maybe it will leaveWith thoughtful departure.The scent of freshlyPainted natureWill make the painting alive.I walk in your lawn,I can see the sunflower blooming.I take up the challengeTo know me,When the poem ends.You are my poetic companion,Come take away my breathTo the Himalayan school,Where I knew mountainsAre life too.Life will be…

“Snow in Nagoya” by Yongbo Ma

Scoop the compacted white mixture of snow and ice beneath the cherry blossom trees otherwise, come nightfall the road will turn into a black mirror There are always spots that can’t be cleared completely like the traces left after grazing animals amble past in a row my professor colleagues sometimes stand under the trees chatting,…

“A Shipyard Worker’s Note 2” by Heh Shan-Qing

＊｛1973年10月14日〈情緒是心中的河〉｝ {October 14, 1973 — “Emotions Are a River in the Heart”} 黃昏的八斗子夕照，極為淒美。不羈的海風，追緝我不羈的長髮。那撕裂人心的浪濤啊，把我年少的思維城堡，砍擊得四分五裂！那海鷗矯捷身影，引領我年少喜歡讀天、讀海、讀星月的浪漫情懷。情緒是心中的河，日夜暗藏緩緩流動著。每天面對不遠處的基隆嶼，內心總是無由升起對南方故鄉的眷戀。而歸鄉之路仍然漫長迢遙，我的背影是那一大片從不止息的浪濤，時時在提醒着我。一種日子是一種心情，每日不斷變幻起伏。那起伏不定的情緒，如心中一條隱匿緩緩流動的河。 The sunset over Badouzi at dusk is profoundly desolate but beautiful. The untamed sea wind chases after my untamed long hair. Those heart-rending waves shatter the fortress of my youthful thoughts into pieces. The agile silhouettes of seagulls…

“The Four Walls” by Supatra Sen

The door flings itself wideAnd clasps me in a tight embraceAs a long lost friendMeeting after centuriesWe grew togetherYou and ISo complete in the otherSo very contentedOnce filled with laughterOf the mirth of youthNow a quiet stillnessOf peace and gratitudeYou’ve been through allThat I have enduredBeginnings and ends intertwinedThrough spring and wondrous fallWhen I am…

“Latency (Outbreak)” by Rick Christiansen

The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule.—Walter BenjaminIt never leaves the body.It waits along the nerve.Years pass without a sign.The skin looks normal. Clear.It never leaves the body.The chart is filed away.A note. A date. A word.It waits along…