William Stanley (W.S.) Merwin (1927 - present) was born on September 30, 1927 in New York City and grew up in Union City, New Jersey, and Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was graduated from Princeton University and worked as a tutor in Europe and translator. From 1956 to 1957 Merwin was also playwright-in-residence at the Poet's Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts and poetry editor at The Nation in 1962. Besides being a prolific poet (he has published over fifteen volumes of his works) he is also a respected translator of Spanish, French, and Latin poetry, including Dante's Purgatorio. In 1998 Merwin wrote Folding Cliffs: A Narrative, an ambitious novel-in-verse about Hawaiian history and legend. (Source from:www.newyorker.com)
Letter to Su Tung P'o
W.S Merwin
Almost a thousand years later
I am asking the same questions
you did the ones you kept finding
yourself returning to as though
nothing had changed except the tone
of their echo growing deeper
and what you knew of the coming
of age before you had grown old
I do not know any more now
than you did then about what you
were asking as I sit at night
above the hushed valley thinking
of you on your river that one
bright sheet of moonlight in the dream
of the waterbirds and I hear
the silence after your questions
how old are the questions tonight
译文：
致苏东坡的一封信
【美】W.S.默温
差不多一千年以后
我问着这同样的问题
你曾经问过并始终找寻
自己回返的那些仿佛
什么都没变化除去他们
回声的音调越发深沉
而你知道的是岁月的来临
在你面前已显得陈旧
此刻的我所知道
不比那时候你所
疑问的更多当我坐在夜晚
岑寂的山谷之上想着
你在你的河上而那一
纸水鸟梦中明亮的月光
并且我还听见你
那问题之后的沉默
在今夜这些问题显得多么古老
2015.1.8 苏东坡生辰
选自诗人诗集《天狼星的阴影》（The Shadow of Sirius, 2009）
To the New Year
W. S. Merwin
With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley
your first sunlight reaching down
to touch the tips of a few
high leaves that do not stir
as though they had not noticed
and did not know you at all
then the voice of a dove calls
from far away in itself
to the hush of the morning
so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not
anyone hears it this is
where we have come with our age
our knowledge such as it is
and our hopes such as they are
invisible before us
untouched and still possible
译文：
致新年
W. S. 默温
在最终如许的沉静中
你在山谷里出现
你的第一缕阳光抵落
触碰到一些高高的
没有被搅扰的叶梢
仿佛它们没有留意到
也根本不认识你
而后一只鸽子的嗓音
从远处自发地
叫醒早晨的嘘静
所以这就是你的声音
此时此地无论是否
有任何人听到，这就是
跟随我们年华而增添的
识见， 波澜不惊
我们的希望也如己所待
隐秘于我们面前
无法触及，却依旧可能
选自诗人诗集《罗盘花》（The Compass Flower,1977）
It is at the first day of this year that I first time saw the second poem. At that moment, a kind of magic feeling came into my mind. I thought: So many people come and go inour lives and none of them stop for us and none of us will stop for them, although we may have a wish to be together with someone forever. Perhaps the nature of life is quietness. All of us are travellers of the world. We are destined to experience the life path different from others, so we are all alone. Hope you can keep inner peace no matter what happen on you; hope you have the courage to face difficults that life brings to you; hope you have the shinning smile on your face during this life journey of exploration. Most importantly, wish you can discover the beaty of siolitude and can enjoy it heart and soul.
In the further, I will keep reading poems of W.S Merwin.
Wish you all dream big, be brave and stay true :)
