The Janss Steps

I have climbed upon these stairs before.
They were a mountain, steep, needing the grip
of foot on ledge. At the top, my mother's lure:
she called, "let's go!", the trumpet of a ship

that blares to cheering sailors: I see land!
I pushed, femur and tibia struck and set,
my knee locked down, I took my mother's hand.
I have just climbed UCLA's Janss Steps.

Eighty-seven steps a fat child huffed on.
He fell, a champ, into his mom's embrace.
Eighty-seven steps I still climb at dawn.
Like a tugboat I keep my mother's pace.

We watch the sun. It dries my sweat like tar,
it climbs as I have climbed to touch the sky.
Yet I am luckier than that rising star,
For, for, though men aren't born with wings to fly--

Though we plod with joints like hinges,
though we sometimes mope around listless,
though our voices turn to crows from finches,
though we must one day cross that River Styx

When I was a boy my mother's arms would lift,
far, far above that watery rift!

詹斯台階路

小時候我就經常爬這座樓梯

就像一座大山，陡峭，每一步都得小心

在我頭上，媽媽在招手：“快走啊，小寶貝！”

媽媽的召喚像船頭的小號

回應着水手們的歡笑：看見陸地了！

我咬咬牙堅持，抬起我的腿，邁步

我的膝蓋抽筋，但我夠到了媽媽的手。

我征服了UCLA的詹斯大台階！

八十七級大台階那個小胖子喘吁吁的上

他終於爬到頂，媽媽等在山頂上

八十七級大台階那是一個早上

像條被拖着的船我把媽媽趕上。

我們迎着晨曦，陽光照在我的臉上

就像我一樣，太陽也爬上了天

可比起朝陽我更加幸福

因為，因為

即使人生來沒有翅膀

即使人靠關節笨重的挪動腳步

即使人經常懶洋洋缺乏生氣

即使人的聲音一會麻雀一會兒變烏鴉

即使有一天每個人都會趟過那三千弱水。。。

在我還是個小男孩的時候，我媽媽的胳臂

早已把我高高的，高高的舉到了天上