Hollyhocks
新昌

April 30, 2004 was the day to inaugurate the first endowed professor in Taiwan studies. It happened at UC-Santa Barbara. I sat in the first row for the ceremony at the Faculty Club at UCSB. Facing me outside of the windows, I saw a few hollyhocks with bright-colored flowers beautifully standing under the charming sun of the Southern California. I was deeply thinking of something, in the distance. The hollyhocks reminded me of an oil painting we bought in Santa Fe, New Mexico a few years ago. I was so impressed by the elegant hollyhocks which present unselfishly the graceful flowers in front of my eyes.

On Sunday, while walking on State Street to the Museum of Arts, I stopped to listen to a street poet. He recited a few poems he composed for me. All of them were related to sands, ocean, human and the universe. I could not resist telling him what I had in my mind. It was what Buddha said, as I was told when I was a child, that the universe could be seen through a tiny kernel of sand in a river. The poet asked whether I wrote poems or not. I said yes, and he asked me to recite for him. But I told him that I could not do it in that occasion. Maybe someday in the future I could if I saw him again. On the train back to Solana Beach, I wrote a poem to remember this trip.

艷陽天
4 月 30 日，艷陽天。
窗外的幾棵 Hollyhocks，﹝註一﹞
在艷麗的陽光下，
開著美麗的花朵，
迎風招展。
想起幾年前一個畫家，
畫了一幅畫：
斷椽殘簷，荒涼景色；
只有
幾株盛開的 Hollyhocks，
在艷麗的陽光下，
迎向
清新而充滿希望的未來。
今天是特別的一天，
在這裡﹝註二﹞
我們微笑著：
因為歷史上記載了，
一個新時代的來臨。
幾近一甲子的糟蹋蹂躪，
終將幕落；
我們家鄉的 Hollyhocks，
也已經萌芽成長，
而且就要開花了。
在這艷陽天的日子，
這裡的一個詩人吟唱著：
生命像是海灘上的許多細沙，
一粒粒都是一個個不同的人；
但是整體的我們，
建構了一片海灘。
經過海浪的洗滌後，
多麼的純潔，穩重與尊嚴；
我們緊密地結合在一起，
美麗細沙都歡欣地微笑著。

註一：蜀葵
註二：Santa Barbara, California
﹝2004.5.03﹞