Sing Lit Station
A Platform Where Writers And Readers Meet
0

Moving People With Words

Poems on the MRT

藏身——與妻在希臘 / In Hiding — with my wife in Greece by Gabriel Wu Yeow Chong

 

藏身——與妻在希臘
吴耀宗

你戴着承诺看我
一侧头
整个海岛也侧了
漫长的手指从发中梳出爱琴海的节奏
构成一种比时间深刻的颤动
美丽得无从启齿

因为你
我喜欢我是尘埃的样子
沿着阳光坠落
坠得极低
然后又轻盈飞扬起来

没有绝对的消失
没有永恒的存记
生命着的我们比宇宙
多一点从异地小巷伸延出去的喜悦
已经足够无尽的星空

——《逐想像而居》（石磬文化事業有限公司，2015年），頁65-66

In Hiding — with my wife in Greece
Written by Gabriel Wu Yeow Chong
Translated by Joshua Ip

you don your promises to visit me
you tilt your head
and the whole island shifts perspective
long fingers running through my hair
combing the rhythm of the aegean
shaping a shudder deeper than time
a beauty i can't begin to mouth

because of you
i joy at being dust-like
drifting sun-wise
falling to a nadir
and gliding up again

without the absolute of nil
the endless of know
life-living, we outwill the universe
with our tiny delight that spills from a foreign alley
enough to fill the infinite starscape

— Published in Dwelling in the Imaginary (Stone Pine Cultural Enterprise Co., Ltd., 2015), pp. 65–66

Born in Singapore in 1965, Gabriel Wu received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle). Wu taught at the National University of Singapore and City University of Hong Kong before his retirement in 2017. He has published seven poetry books and two short story collections, which won him accolades such as Singapore Young Artist Award and Singapore Literature Prize. Based in Hong Kong since 2006, he is Director of Hong Kong 18 District Poetry Reading Society, and writer-in-residence at the Beijing Lu Xun Academy of Literature in 2019 and Norwich National Centre for Writing in 2024.

READ MORE FROM:

 
 
 

Poems on the MRT is an initiative by the National Arts Council, in partnership with SMRT and Stellar Ace. Produced by Sing Lit Station, a local literary non-profit organisation, this collaboration displays excerpts of Singapore poetry throughout SMRT’s train network, integrating local literature into the daily experience of commuters. Look out for poems in English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil in trains on the East-West, North-South and Circle Lines, as well as videos created by local artists and featuring local poets in stations and on trains. The Chinese, Malay, and Tamil poems are available in both the original languages and English. To enjoy the full poems, commuters may read them on go.gov.sg/potm.

Sing Lit StationChinese