作為一位女性，我渴望探索女性生命中的每一個階段。雖然我還沒有經歷到某些階段，我確實發現，女性在不同時刻都會經歷「重生」。第一次月經、第一次性經驗、第一次懷孕、第一次當母親⋯⋯每一個階段都是許多女性的里程碑。

當然，這些階段可能只適用於異性戀的女性。女同志以及女權主義者應該不會點頭。不過在這裡，我們只是想基於五行的概念，用西方女性所作的詩歌和視覺展示，來分享這些美麗動人的文字。

牛奶

Poem In Praise Of Menstruation – By Lucille Clifton

if there is a river
more beautiful than this
bright as the blood
red edge of the moon          if
there is a river
more faithful than this
returning each
to the same delta          if there
is a river
braver than this
coming and coming in a surge
of passion, of pain          if there is
a river
more ancient than this
daughter of eve
mother of cain and of abel          if there is in
the universe such a river          if
there is some where water
more powerful than this wild
water
pray that it flows also
through
beautiful and faithful and ancient
and female and brave

重要事件：女性成熟
概念：水
初潮象徵著女孩成為了女人。Clifton用同樣象徵孕育生命的河流來比作月經，將其描述得浪漫又美好。

初嘗禁果

Trying Fourleggedness – By Rebecca Hazelton

The boy and the girl were mostly gesture,
a clouded outline, the pencil lifting, lowering
to get at the idea of childhood, not the sour milk
and scraped knee of it. Her skirt was a swoop
of ink, his hand invisible in an undrawn pocket.
Circles make up the majority of the face. We are all circles
and planar suggestion. If  the girl wants to be a horse
she need only walk into the outline of one
and line up her body with the chest. We’ll fill in
the rest, and before you know it, she’s a natural.
Who will ride her? The boy doesn’t know how.
He has a hankering to sketch in a saddle.
When she tosses her head, he mocks up a bridle.
He mocks her. A bridle for a bride, he says,
which doesn’t seem like what little boys say,
but he wasn’t so little, and she didn’t run away.

重要事件：第一次性經驗；破處
概念：木
Hazelton用精彩的語言描繪了青少年初嘗禁果。他們受好奇心和慾望的驅使。第一次永遠是難忘的，某種程度上，它是疼痛的──一方在失去一件再也拿不回的東西了。
免責聲明：竹子在中文文化裡象徵君子的氣節，這裡絕對沒有貶低它的意思。

乾柴烈火

In Praise of My Bed – By Meredith Holmes

At last I can be with you!
The grinding hours
since I left your side!
The labor of being fully human,
working my opposable thumb,
talking, and walking upright.
Now I have unclasped
unzipped, stepped out of.
Husked, soft, a be-er only,
I do nothing, but point
my bare feet into your
clean smoothness
feel your quiet strength
the whole length of my body.
I close my eyes, hear myself
moan, so grateful to be held this way.

重要事件：同房
概念：火
中國有一句成語：乾柴烈火，形容兩個互相渴望的人的相互吸引。這時候，空氣應該也是粉紅色的，充滿荷爾蒙的味道吧

蓮子

Woman To Man – By Judith Wright

The eyeless labourer in the night,
the selfless, shapeless seed I hold,
builds for its resurrection day—
silent and swift and deep from sight
foresees the unimagined light.
This is no child with a child’s face;
this has no name to name it by;
yet you and I have known it well.
This is our hunter and our chase,
the third who lay in our embrace.
This is the strength that your arm knows,
the arc of flesh that is my breast,
the precise crystals of our eyes.
This is the blood’s wild tree that grows
the intricate and folded rose.
This is the maker and the made;
this is the question and reply;
the blind head butting at the dark,
the blaze of light along the blade.
Oh hold me, for I am afraid.

重要事件：懷孕
概念：土
Wright充滿力量地闡述了對於懷孕的恐懼。懷孕本來就是一件讓人又愛又怕的事情──新生命、新家庭；身體的變化、分娩的痛苦、可能遇到的流產。在中國文化中，睡蓮的根和種子被當作是繁衍的象徵。創造與被創造，陶工與粘土，根與種子──無法停止對母親的尊重，她們承受我們生命最初的重量。

金菠蘿

Woman to Child – By Judith Wright

You who were darkness warmed my flesh
where out of darkness rose the seed.
Then all a world I made in me;
all the world you hear and see
hung upon my dreaming blood.
There moved the multitudinous stars,
and coloured birds and fishes moved.
There swam the sliding continents.
All time lay rolled in me, and sense,
and love that knew not its beloved.
O node and focus of the world;
I hold you deep within that well
you shall escape and not escape-
that mirrors still your sleeping shape;
that nurtures still your crescent cell.
I wither and you break from me;
yet though you dance in living light
I am the earth, I am the root,
I am the stem that fed the fruit,
the link that joins you to the night.

重要事件：分娩
概念：金
Wright和自己的孩子分享生育經。她凋謝了，從而孩子可以從母體分離。對新生命的慶祝有著自相矛盾的暴力色彩。傳統華人的觀點與女權主義相悖，用「金菠蘿」來指代兒子而女兒並沒有什麼頭銜。但是我相信不管男女，每個孩子都是母親的「金菠蘿」。

TEXT: FLORIELLE/ HOKK FABRICA
TRANSLATION: SUGARCOAT/ HOKK FABRICA
ART DIRECTION & STYLING: ROISEROOM/HOKK FABRICA
PHOTOGRAPHY: TONY/ HOKK FABRICA