文／隱地（1937~）

坐著，時間陪我坐著。

我被「壞」驚嚇住了。「壞」，我在想著人世間的「壞」，一切的「壞」。

時間是劊子手，它殺掉世上的一切。荒謬的是，我又必須記得：時間孕育了一切。

一切，我們在世上擁有的一切，都是禍福相連，悲喜同在。時間是鐘，鐘擺非左即右，它永遠讓我們在得失之間遺憾生命的不完美。

年輕的時候，我們控制時間、運用時間，年老的時候，時間控制我們，我們只能隨波逐流。年輕時候，沒有人感覺時間的流動，到了老年，時光推移，像山一樣沉重，它壓得我們喘不過氣來，時間不再是慢慢的溜走，而像一個跑步的巨人，它驅趕我們，把光和美，自我們生命中抽走。──選自《人生十感》

Time Sits with Me (Excerpt)

Yindi (1937 -)

English translation: William Chong

Seated, time sits with me.

I am shocked by “destruction.”

“Destruction,” I think about the “destruction” in the world, all that “destruction.”

Time is an executioner, killing everything in the world. What is absurd is that I have to remember that Time nurtures everything.

Everything, everything we possess in the world, is conjoined in fortune and misfortune, sadness and joy. Time is a clock; its pendulum either left or right, always causing us to regret life’s imperfections between our gains and losses.

In our youth, we control and make use of time; in old age, time controls us, and we can only but succumb. In our youth, no one feels the flow of time; in old age, the passage of time has the weight of a mountain, crushing us till we are out of breath.

Time no longer slowly slips away, but like a running giant, chases after us, sucking away the light and beauty from our lives.── from Rensheng Shigan

(Ten Reflections on Life)