▎囚犯

她不知道什麼叫罪犯。

她在監獄的門口等候，

只想見到他，

跟他道一聲：“當心點！”

之前她總是這麼叮囑他，

在他上學的時候，

在他工作的時候，

在他外出度假的時候。

她不明白那些穿著制服的人們

在那高墻的後面，

此刻正在嘀咕的話語。

她不明白為什麼，

他們要他待在那裏，

和那些可疑的陌生人一起。

她從來不曾料想——

在那些遙遠的日子裏

當她哄他入睡的時候——

有朝一日，他會身處這個冰冷的

沒有窗戶、沒有月亮的所在。

她不明白，

囚犯的母親不明白，

什麼叫做離別，

當探望的時間結束的時候。

（薛慶國譯）

▎The Prisoner

She doesn't understand

what it means to be “guilty”.

She waits at the prison entrance

until she sees him, to say,

“Take care of yourself”,

as she always used to remind him

when he went off to school

when he left for work,

when he returned on vacation.

She doesn't understand

what they are saying now

at the back of the podium

in their official uniforms.

They report that he should be kept there

with lonely strangers.

It never occurred to her,

as she sang lullabies on his bed

in those distant days,

someday, he would end up in this cold place

without windows or moons.

She doesn't understand,

the prisoner's mother doesn't understand

why she should leave him

just because

“The visit is over.”

（Translated by Elizabeth Winslow）

作者：敦雅·米卡埃爾 Dunya Mikhail 美籍伊拉克詩人，1965年生於巴格達。出版有《戰爭孜孜不倦》、《外海之浪的日記》、《伊拉克之夜》等作品集，獲頒「聯合國創作自由人道獎」等獎項。

題圖：The Accused，Odilon Redon 繪