“What can I hold you with?”

我用什麼才能留住你?

“I offer you lean streets, desperate sunsets,the moon of the jagged suburbs.”

我給你瘦落的街道、絕望的落日、荒郊的月亮。

“I offer you the bitterness of a man who has looked long and long at the lonely moon.”

我給你一個久久地望著孤月的人的悲哀。

……

半明半昧的陰影,橘黃色的燈光在他身上投了層深淺不一的陰影,五官融在疏淺的光線中,有一種不真實的清俊。

他有點鼻音的清淡,鬆鬆懶懶,尾音音調微揚卷著英倫的腔調,下壓再低低的纏上來,足夠撩撥得人耳尖發麻,漸漸發燙。

只是這漫長的曖昧繾綣,並未被任何人聽聞。

但床側青年絲毫不在意。

字句依舊在靜寂空間的暈開蔓延——

“I offer you the loyalty of a man who has never been loyal.”

我給你一個從未有過信仰的人的忠誠。

“I offer you that kernel of myself that I have saved somehow -the central heart,”

我給你我設法保全的我自己的核心,

“that deals not in words, traffics not with dreams,”

不營字造句,不和夢交易,

“and is untouched by time, by joy, by adversities.”

不被時間、歡樂和逆境觸動的核心。

“I offer you the memory of a yellow rose seen at sunset, years before you were born.”

我給你早在你出生前多年的一個傍晚看到的一朵黃玫瑰的記憶。

“I offer you explanation of yourself,”

我給你關於你生命的詮釋,

“theories about yourself,”

關於你自己的理論,

“authentic and surprising news of yourself.”

你的真實而驚人的存在。

“I can give you my loneliness,”

我給你我的寂寞,

“my darkness,”

我的黑暗,

“the hunger of my heart;”

我心的飢渴,

“I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.”

我試圖用困惑、危險、失敗來打動你。

……

最後一絲光被黑暗吞噬。

青年抬眼輕眨,黑髮微垂,繼而由坐到站唸完最後一句詩歌,將掖好被角的手收回。

即使他唯一的聽眾