宗塔

　　Zong Ta

　　暴雨一夜的肆虐終于偃旗息鼓，太陽從雲層中探出了笑顔，經過雨的沖刷，空氣變得格外透明，草場也綠得令人心醉。白色和金黃色的天鵝在天空中優雅地滑翔，淙淙溪水緩慢地滋潤著宗塔草原，白色的野花繁星般地撲滿視野，蜜蜂蝴蝶在花間輕快地暢遊著，青蛙在草叢裏歡快地跳躍著，青山環繞，森林茂密。

　　The thunderstorm raging all night finally stopped. The sun came out smiling from behind the clouds. In the washed, transparent air, the green fields were simply enchanting. White and golden swans glided gracefully in the sky while the brooks ran gently, nourishing the Zong Ta prairie that is surrounded by verdant mountains and dense forests. Bees and butterflies danced merrily among the sprawling white wildflowers and frogs leaped playfully in tall grasses.

　　我來到了過去的母校宗塔中學的原址，如今這裏已改建爲一所小學，過去的教室已破敗不堪，以前住過的宿舍已不複存在，原址上新修了一棟平房。

　　Here I was revisiting the place where my alma mater, Zong Ta Middle School, used to be. The old classrooms were in ruins and had been replaced by an elementary school. The old dormitory where I used to stay was gone, a newly built bungalow now stood there.

　　朝氣蓬勃的中學時光，如同電影般一幕幕地在腦海中閃現。那時，我們是那麼地充滿活力，仿佛有使不完的精力。如今，青春已棄我而去，空剩下一把老朽的身骨。過去的師長大多撒手人寰，同窗的好友紛紛與世長辭。栽植于校園旁的樹木早已枝繁葉茂、參天林立，當年參與植樹的同學卻音訊杳無、難覓蹤迹。站在學校對面的山上，回首俯視曾經生活的故迹，人事皆非，生起感慨萬千。無常真是毫無情面的裁判，吞噬了過去的一切，也使人不敢留戀現在的擁有。更使人曉知幻化的山川、假合的身體都不離無常的實質。

　　My lively middle school days flashed through my mind like scenes in a movie. In those days, we were bubbling over with life as if loaded with inexhaustible energy. Nowadays, my youth is gone, leaving behind only a sack of worn flesh and bones. The majority of my old teachers have passed away, as have many of my schoolmates. The saplings we planted around the campus are now towering trees adorned with luxuriant leaves, but the classmates who planted them are heard from no more or are nowhere to be found. Standing on the hill overlooking my old school, I was choked with emotion; as things change, so do humans, only worse. Impermanence, like an iron-faced umpire, swallows up all there was in the past. It allows us no clinging to what we have now. It forces us to see the fleeting nature of the illusory landscape and the composite human body.

　　略感欣慰的是，一位當年的同窗拉布，現已出家，在對面山上有四、五十人的寺廟裏擔任住持，每天爲他們宣講佛法。使我在滿目的無常中感受到一絲永恒的光芒。

　　But there is also something to be happy about. My classmate Lhapu has taken the Buddhist ordination and is now the head monk of a monastery on a facing mountain, teaching Dharma to 40 to 50 monks every day. Thinking of him made me catch a glimpse of the everlasting beacon amidst the rumbles of impermanence.

　　壬午年六月初九　　

　　2002年7月18日

　　9th of June, Year of RenWu

　　July 18, 2002