作家面对空白的稿纸所发的感慨

这首诗的历史：

Abdilatif Abdalla’s translated a poem called ‘Morgen’ of Dutch poet Bert Schierbeek (1918 - 1996) into Swahili when he made as a participant of Poetry International in 1991. The loose interpretation of the Dutch poem reads as follows:

To-morrow

The solitude of a writer
Before the unwritten sheet
That already weeps
And doesn’t know how to dry those tears
And to say then:
To-morrow then.

The Dutch original expresses a situation so familiar to many of us with a very precise density - a writer confronted with the emptiness of a white piece of paper, crying for the words that it wishes to carry and speak out.

Abdilatif Abdalla modified his translation and shaped it to the extent that it became a new poem. The English version is a translation from Abdilatif Abdalla Swahili version.

For more please read

http://www.academia.edu/5290092/_YOU_OBSTINATE_PAGE_WHEN_SWAHILI_POETS_BECOME_TRANSLATORS_Observations_from_Three_Swahili-Dutch_Poetical_Encounters

Another note:

"Virgin Page" stands for a piece of paper that is empty, not written. But to translate this to "处女纸“ is a bit of odd.   "Virgin" in English can refer something never touched, used etc in addition to a girl who has not engaged in sexual activity. In Chinese "处女" has narrower meaning althouh though we say "处女地“， ”处女作“等少数约定俗成的词。 We donno't all a pair of never used shoes "处女鞋“。 By the same logic "处女纸“ 显得太牵强。 这是我的一管之见。