Sub Menu contents

Other Poems

Taiwanese Poems

My Puppeteering Brother-in-Law ] The Village Chief Wants to Build a Bridge ] Nine to Five ] Grampaw's Smoking Pipe ] Shadowed and Shadowless ] [ Dad's lunchbox ]

   

 

Dads Lunchbox

Trns. by John Balcom

Every morning, Dad got up before the sun
He took his lunchbox and
Rode his old bike to the stream bed
To haul gravel

Every night I wondered
What was in Dad’s lunchbox
Every morning my brother and I ate our fill of stuffed buns and soy milk
Dad surely had an egg in his lunchbox
Otherwise, how could he haul gravel

One morning when it was still dark
I got up and tiptoed to the kitchen
There was no egg in Dad’s lunchbox
Just sweet-potato rice, and pickled radishw

 

 

阿爹的飯包


每一日早起時,天猶未光
阿爹就帶著飯包
騎著舊鐵馬,離開厝
出去溪埔替人搬沙石

每一暝阮攏在想
阿爹的飯包到底什麼款
早頓阮和阿兄食包仔配豆乳
阿爹的飯包起碼也有一粒蛋
若無安怎替人搬沙石

有一日早起時,天猶黑黑
阮偷偷走入去灶腳內,掀開
阿爹的飯包:無半粒蛋
三條菜脯,蕃薯籤參飯

 

First published: July 3,1998   Copyright 2009 Xiang Yang. All Rights Reserved