Delayed Tropical Syndrome

At first, thought did not know;
the body submitted its testimony
in the night:

the left rib entered the rainy season
earlier than the right,
the skin salted itself without cause,
the root of the tongue—like a customs seal
long held in detention—
stamped a certain name back into the blood.

I tried to speak.

But language began to resist me.
It refused to become a statement,
arranging itself in the throat
as quarantine lines, tide tables,
a redacted medical file.
All verbs became inflamed;
all pronouns refused their posts.
I said “weather,” and it grew lymph nodes;
I said “yesterday,”
and from deep in the gums
it summoned an army unable to retreat.

Then the world, too, was implicated.

North of the equator,
the city contracted a slow visceral smog;
mildew multiplied in the archives,
laws curled in the humidity,
and the white walls of the hospital secreted
the sap of tropical plants.
Blind insects migrated through the radar echoes,
and the phases of the moon, like a broken state seal,
granted the same pain entry into
my bones, my room, my sleep,
and the republic.

Logic loses its temperature here.

No diagnosis holds.
A wind at the window
breaks the fever’s seal.
I take apart the names
and find only heat
where grammar should have cooled.

In the end, I can only admit:

these climatic anomalies,
this edema of institutions,
neuritis, medical certificates, rainstorms—
no lesion found.

Only this: I miss you.

---

中文翻译

迟发性热带综合征

起初，思想并不知情； 身体在夜里 呈交了它的证词：

左肋比右肋 更早进入雨季， 皮肤无诱因地盐渍自身， 舌根——像一枚 长期遭扣押的海关印章—— 把某个名字盖回血液里。 我试图开口。

但语言开始抗拒我。

它拒绝成为陈述， 在喉咙里将自己排列成 检疫线、潮汐表、 一份涂黑的病历。 所有动词均已发炎； 所有代词拒不到岗。 我说”天气”，它就长出淋巴结； 我说”昨天”， 它便从牙龈深处 召集一支无法撤退的军队。

随后，世界也遭到牵连。

赤道以北， 城市染上一种缓慢的内脏雾霾； 霉菌在档案里增殖， 法律在湿气中卷边， 医院的白墙分泌出 热带植物的浆液。 失明的昆虫在雷达回波间迁徙， 而月相，像一枚残破的国玺， 批准同一种疼痛进入 我的骨头、我的房间、我的睡眠， 以及共和国。

逻辑在此失温。

诊断无一成立。 窗边一阵风 撕开高烧的封条。 我拆开那些名字， 在语法本该冷却的地方 只找到热。

最终，我只能坦白：

这些气候异常， 这场制度的水肿， 神经炎、诊断证明、暴雨—— 未见病灶。

仅此一项：我想你。