a chair handed down from ancestors
for you to rest in after a day’s work
you go about carrying it
drinking with your tribesmen in a circle
a cup made from a gourd
holding wine brewed from plums
a pillow made from tree branches
for your head when you’re drunk
letting you slip peacefully into your dreams
a big spoon for cooking
a small spoon for drinking soup
stirring hot food
keeping us warm in winter
a pipe in the shape of a human body
tobacco sizzling noisily within
smoke rings exhaled like skulls in our imagination
fragrance wafts inside the tent
she lets fall from her head a comb
the wooden comb close to her hair
rolls of silk in it
stroke a gourd
that gradually glows with time
caress a tree branch
until there appear the mouth and limbs of a beast
bones sucked clean, cleansed and dried in the sun
thread entwining thread making a rope, rock knocking on
rock, until they bear desired looks
these two hands pick up clueless materials, give them shapes
craft household articles and keep a family whole
after seeing an exhibition of African folk household articles in Washington in the winter of 1991
家用的器皿
一張先人留下的椅子
讓你一日工作之餘坐下休息
你抬着它到處去
與族人圍成一圈喝酒
一個葫蘆瓜造的杯子
盛着梅子造的酒
醉了就有一截樹枝造的枕頭
托着你的腦袋
讓你安然進入夢鄉
大的匙羹用來煮菜
小的匙羹用來喝湯
攪拌燙熱的食物
在冬天令我們溫暖
煙斗有人體的形狀
煙絲在身體裏燃燒絲絲鳴叫
噴出的煙圈凝成想像的頭顱
芳香飄揚在營帳裏
她從頭上卸下木梳
熨帖着她的頭髮的木梳
上面有綹綹纏綿
摩挲一個葫蘆瓜
逐漸在實踐裏發出光澤
愛撫一截樹幹
直至那裏露出野獸的嘴巴和四肢
吮乾淨骨頭洗刷又曬乾
線絞着線編成繩子，石頭敲鑿
石頭，直至它們有心想的樣貌
就是這雙手撿拾渾噩的材料給予形式
經營家用的器皿承載了家裏的人
一九九一年冬在華盛頓博物館
看非洲民俗用品展覽有感
