三版自序
Foreword to the Third Edition
The Night Watchman was first published in 1992 and then reprinted in 2004. Now another 12 years have passed and this new third edition seems due. Of course this new edition has its changes, with both additions and deletions of about a dozen. The result is still more than 80 poems in this edition, approximately one twelfth of my total output in verse. Yet there is flexibility in counting the poems, because “Summer Thoughts of a Mountaineer” is a series of 7 poems and “Scenes of Kenting National Park” a series of 11.
Another 12 years will find me a centenarian, but I don’t care for being a longevity rarity. So this third edition should remain not only the most recent but also the last edition of The Night Watchman.
Yu Kwang-chung
2016
《守夜人》初版於一九九二年,再版於二○○四年,如今又過了十二年;這最新的第三版頗多增刪,增的和刪的各為一打左右。其結果仍是八十多首,約占迄今為止我的總產量十二分之一。不過「首」的認定頗有伸縮,因為這第三版裏收入兩首組詩,例如〈山中暑意七品〉與〈墾丁十一首〉。
再過十二年我就一百歲了,但我對做「人瑞」並不熱衷。所以這第三版該是最新的也是最後的《守夜人》了。
二○一六年