【大紀元12月22日訊】(明報新聞網2008年12月22日報導)港大助理教授林舜玲早前獲國際英詩創作大獎，是賽事舉辦24年來首位中國人獲得這個獎項。
林舜玲13歲喪父，在兩位哥哥幫助下，才可得母親同意完成大學課程。54歲的林舜玲今次參賽憑個人情感，描寫對宇宙的感覺獲獎，以下是該詩全文：
《Vanilla in the stars》
When I was a child,
I used to gaze the stars above
our garden of roses, jasmine and lingzhi by the sea,
wondering how far away they really were,
whether they were shining still at the source
by the time their light reached me…
I was told that everyone was born with a star
which glowed or dimmed with the fortunes of each.
I also heard people destined to be close
were at first fragments of the same star
and from birth went searching for each other.
Such parting, seeking, reuniting might take
three lifetimes with centuries in between.
I had thought all these were but myths…
Now decades later, I read about the life of stars,
how their cores burn for ten billion years,
how towards the end, just before oblivion,
they atomize into nebulae of fragile brilliance-
ultra violet, infra red, luminous white, neon green or blue,
astronomical butterflies of gaseous light
afloat in a last waltz choreographed by relativity,
scattering their heated ashes into the void of the universe…
Some of this cosmic dust falls onto our little earth
carrying hydrocarbon compounds, organic matter
able to mutate into plant and animal life,
a spectrum of elemental fragrances…
Perhaps on the dust emanating from one ancient star
were borne the first molecules of a pandan leaf,
a spring of mint or basil, a vanilla pod, a vine
tomato,
a morning fragipani, an evening rose, a lily of the
night…
Perhaps our parents or grandparents or ancestors
further back
strolling through a garden or a field nad breathed
in the scents
effusing from some of these plants born of the same star
and passed them on as DNA in the genes of which we
were made…
Could that be why, on our early encounters, we were sensed
in each other a whiff of something familiar, why
when we were near,
there is in the air some spark which seems to have
always been there,
prompting us to connect our pasts, share our stories
even as they evolve…
…till the day when we too burn away into dust
and the aromas of our essence dissipate
into the same kaleidoscope of ether light
to be drawn into solar space by astral winds…
…perhaps to make vanilla in a star to be
before the next lifetime of three?
