My Mother’s Cotton Flowers 母亲的棉花/张凡修

My Mother’s Cotton Flowers

Cotton flowers chat only to my mother
who teaches the green bolls, dumb
for the whole summer, to open their mouths.
Back bent, she picks up sentences
one by one, and dries them on the branches.

Once they talk, the flowers bloom.
Their tongues that have tasted the sweetness
surround mother’s bosom
like spoiled children trying to cling to her.

Watching mother in the flower clusters, moving
inch by inch, I hear in her hands
the most tender whispers.


母亲的棉花
-张凡修


棉花的话，只说给母亲，一个人听
哑了一个夏天的青桃，母亲教它们开口
弯着腰，一句句打捞，晾在枝杈上

花朵一说话它就开放。一只只尝到甜头的舌头
拱着母亲的胸脯。仿佛一群撒娇的孩子
争着抢着与母亲亲昵

看着母亲在花丛中，一遍又一遍地挪动
我听见了，落进母亲手中的呢喃
是这个世界上最轻柔的