序言
理查德．格林（曉鳴翻譯）
「你漫步在門口，
呼吸著兩種語言」
近年來，星子安娜正成為加拿大詩壇一位引人注目的詩人，她的成就值得更廣為人知。她已經出版了六本詩集，並當選密西沙加的首位桂冠詩人。她參加過很多文化活動和公益事業。她的很多詩出現在一系列的出版物當中。她還積極參與詩歌的中英文互譯。
《愛的燈塔》是一部重要並抱負不凡的中英文雙語詩集。我只能閱讀一種語言，因此羨慕那些能欣賞兩種語言的讀者。
幾年前我寫到，星子的詩與二十世紀初的意象派有共通之處。她用精煉的文字，水晶般的意象，表達出強烈的情感和深刻的含義。她往往用簡潔明瞭的直接陳述去描繪詩中人物的感受，並主要依賴客體之間的優雅並置去激發讀者的興趣。她的詩歌往往帶有神祕感，就像一個夢無縫地潛入另一個夢，無需停頓去相互實證。
這本詩集中我最喜歡的是〈陌〉，它是這樣開頭的：
通往她房間的門關上；
那裡有著整個世界。
這首詩連續描述了一位男子的三次拜訪。第一次，他留下一張紙條，她將其折疊成了仙鶴。然後他把草帽留在門口，而在房間裡，一朵玫瑰散落了花瓣，她將花瓣張貼在鏡子上。最後，他帶來一條長絲巾，蒙著雙眼，他們一起進入房間。我不知道這個敘事中的每個元素意味著什麼──但我能感覺到戀人之間的交談以神祕的方式在親密行為中結束。
這本詩集中的許多詩都是以這種方式展開的──輕靈純樸，有時是通過夢幻般的情境，在讀者中引起由衷的反應。
這本詩集充滿了召喚和聯想的小奇蹟。星子安娜引起了我們的密切關注。《愛的燈塔》是一本非常精彩的書。
注：
理查德．格林，多倫多大學英語教授，是四本詩集的作者，同時也是國際知名的伊蒂絲希特維爾的傳記的作者。他的《搏擊指南針》獲得2010年加拿大總督文學詩歌獎。
曉鳴，中國四川人，曾任北美中西文化交流協會會長。1981年開始發表詩歌，小說和散文。
Preface
“Around the doorway, you wander,
breathe in two languages.”
In the past few years, Anna Yin has become a considerable figure in Canadian poetry, though perhaps not as widely known as she ought to be. She has published six books of poems and served as Mississauga’s inaugural poet laureate. She has participated in many cultural festivals and public events, and individual poems of hers have appeared in an array of publications. She has also become an active translator of poetry.
Love’s Lighthouse is an important and ambitious collection, for here she gives us her poems in both Chinese and English. As one who can only read the English versions, I must admit to envy those who can read both.
Some years ago, I wrote that Anna Yin’s poetry has much in common with the Imagists of the early twentieth century. She writes a pared down verse, which relies on crystalline images to communicate powerful emotion. She makes just a few direct statements about what her persona is feeling, relying instead on the elegant juxtaposition of one object and another to stir the reader.
Often her poems are enigmatic, just as in dreams one possibility emerges out of another without pausing to justify itself.
Among my favorite compositions in this book is “The Path” – it begins:
The door to her room is closed;
there is a whole world there.
The poem goes on to describe three visits from a man. The first time, he brings a note which the woman folds into a paper crane. Then he leaves his hat at the door, while inside the room a rose loses its petals, which are then attached to a mirror. Finally, he brings a long scarf and, both blindfolded, they go into the room together. I don’t know what each element in this narrative means–but I can sense a conversation of lovers that ends in mystery and intimacy.
Many poems in this collection work just in this manner–simple, sometimes dreamlike, situations evoke in the reader a heartfelt response.
This book is full of small miracles of evocation and association. Anna Yin has earned our close attention. Love’s Lighthouse is a wonderful book.
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Richard Greene
Professor of English, University of Toronto
