【大纪元12月22日讯】(明报新闻网2008年12月22日报导)港大助理教授林舜玲早前获国际英诗创作大奖，是赛事举办24年来首位中国人获得这个奖项。
林舜玲13岁丧父，在两位哥哥帮助下，才可得母亲同意完成大学课程。54岁的林舜玲今次参赛凭个人情感，描写对宇宙的感觉获奖，以下是该诗全文：
《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?
