Resident Spider (from Miniscule) Published in Chinese

我的小蟹蛛

 

猶如繁體字「導」一般淩亂

每日清晨我總在

茶葉罐後發現這隻蟹蛛

要麼出現在殘羹冷炙上

要麼，像個不起眼的小黑點

當我用海綿將牠掃起

牠便驚慌失措

從我的五指山溜走

我敬畏

這隻在明暗交接的窗臺上

打盹的小小生靈

滑動玻璃門的縫隙裏

是牠的小糧倉

蒼蠅在網上掙扎半死

下一個，將是蚊子

像剛出爐的迷你派 在風中凍結

還有寄養在肥料中的臭蟲

也是牠撿起來的破爛

成百上千

盤旋在生菜和辣椒籽

還有香蕉皮和草木灰之上

趁它們落跑之際

將它們制服

夜晚，我對著

書本和思想的封皮發呆，

這隻小蟹蛛 牠在幹甚麼呢？

李白（西元 720年）寫到

山和月亮是我們的同伴

對他來說或許

「蜘蛛」也有因緣，

生活在另一個

不屬於任何人的世界裡

Resident Spider 

As rumpled as a character 導 in Dao,

I find this little crab spider

every morning behind the tea canister

or on the leftover dishes. Sometimes,

he appears as a dot of fluff, so that

when I wipe him up

he breaks through my grip

between fear and sponge.

I am in awe of this mini creature

who naps on the window sill

under a slip of shadow and sun.

He has a larder of food in the

crevices of sliding glass,

flies spinning a half death,

midgees waiting in line

like miniature pies baking to cool.

His other food scraps are the

bugs I breed in the compost.

Hundreds of them fly low

over the lettuce, capsicum seeds

banana skins & pot ash.

He’s caught some of them

trying to escape.

At night, I am lost in the covers

of books & thought.

And the mini-spider what does he do?

Li Po (701-762 CE) writes

of mountains & the moon as our companions.

Perhaps he added “crab spider”

to his other mystic thoughts,

as one who lives in the other world,
that no one owns.