Alex Nodopaka is a visual artist and writer who has practiced both art forms since the 1950s in several languages. His visual art has been used on many occasions as an ekphrastic background for poetry.

 

存在目的我想知道当我坐在我的办公桌前时我有

个模糊的想法 我早些时候写了什么

我的想法开始徘徊

因为我开始想回答我的生日好心人或我的水族馆

里的许多鱼没有当我的手指点击

个虚拟的空白页面时

我很快忘记了当我第

次坐在桌边时我要写的东西

它让我担心，因为如果每个人都经历同样的事情

我们将如何实现目标。好吧，就像我们大多数人

样。如果飞行员坐在驾驶舱内并忘记了他的仪表的意义或者为

了举起金属野兽而进行切换的顺序怎么办？无论如何 我不知道它与我在互联网拍卖行上购买日本花瓶并打开盒

子以便处理小宝石并感受其优雅的线条有什么关系

尽管如此，它很快就会在

个架子上收集灰尘

个世纪，但它只是激发了我对艺术家的想象力

以及他或她的大量知识和实践来实现这个短暂的存在主义奇迹

 

Existential Purpose

 

I wonder when I sit at my desk

with a vague idea I had earlier

of what to write

and my thoughts begin

to wander

because I start thinking

of answering

my birthday well-wishers

or that the many fishes

in my aquariums

haven’t been fed

while my fingers

click on a virtual blank page

and I soon forget

what I was going to write

when I first sat at the desk.

 

It worries me because

if everyone

experiences the same

how come we reach our goals.

 

Well, as most of us do

anyhow.

 

What if the pilot

sat in the cockpit

and forgot the meaning

of his gauges

or the sequence of toggling

for lifting the metallic beast.

 

Anyhow, I don’t know

what it has to do with me

acquiring a Nippon vase

over an internet auction house

and opening the box

for the sake of handling

the little jewel

and feeling its elegant lines.

 

Even though, soon enough

it’ll be collecting dust

on some shelf

for another century

but it simply spurred

my imagination

about the artist

who made it and his or her

vast amount of knowledge

and practice to have achieved

this ephemeral

existential marvel.

 

~

 

全息碎片我是诗歌宏大典范中的一

个全息缝隙我避免经常出现在我的言论不太多的地方

所以你的诗中有

个吟游诗人的地方暗示我会说在你的写作中

起错过了。请注意我写的是其他人的剩余象牙

也许这是一种诗意的回应。

 

A Holographic Shard

 

I’m a holographic chink

in the grand apotheosis

of poetry

 

I avoid being

too often present

where my remarks

are not much wanted

and so it is

with your poem

where a bard

has a spot-on

suggestion

that I would’ve missed

altogether

in your writing.

 

And notice

I write

on the leftover ivories

of others.

 

Maybe this is

a poetic response.