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I would like you to
firmly resist your weakness
like a chrysalis holding back a butterfly, a maple leaf resisting the autumn
a newly splashed
droplet resisting breakup

我想請你
堅強地忍住脆弱
像蛹忍住蝶，楓葉忍住秋天
新濺下的
一枚水滴忍住破散

I would like you to
balance your inner beauty
like the structure of a snowflake,
the four petals of a finger tree flower
a quatrain on a yellowed paper scroll:
“a still night, an empty spring mountain”

我想請你
平衡內在的美麗
如雪花的結構、流蘇的四瓣
泛黃的紙卷上
夜靜春山空的一首五絕

I would like you to
tolerate the secrets of a narcissus
forgive the twists of a moonlit river
look straight at the murky sky as rain falls down
just like listening to a naked prayer
like the ocean
embracing the absolution of a storm

我想請你
寬容一株水仙的秘密
原宥一條月江的曲折
直視陰雨直落的灰霾天空
如同傾聽一句赤裸的禱詞
像海洋
擁抱一場暴風雨的告解

Then, maybe you would be willing
to walk through a declining border town
through a prosperous metropolis
see life, see death
see all the bustle and transience
dignity and cold lifelessness

然後，或許你願意
走上沒落的邊城
繁華的都心
看看生，看看死
看看一切熱鬧與無常
尊嚴與肅殺

Sometimes, life is
as quietly beautiful as a poem, as desolate as a vine
as intense as a soaring eagle
as lonely as a dust-covered stele

生命有時
靜美如詩，荒涼如蔓
激越如鷹翱翔
寂寞如碑蒙塵

And so time passes, places alter, faces change
it has been a long journey
we return to the room we set off from
origin and destination curl into a perfect ring

至末時移、境遷，容顏更改
旅途得很久了
我們回到出發時的房間
原點與終點繞成完美的環

I shall recognize the look in your eyes
after calibration: clear, unswerving
like steel beads that do not rust
roundly, in a dark room
reflecting pure light

我將認出你標定後的眼神
洗鍊貞定
如不鏽的鋼珠
圓整地，於暗室中
反射出簡淨的光芒

— Chen, Yi-Wen, Like a larva holding on for transformation
— 陳依文，〈像蛹忍住蝶〉