As of 2014, Dr. Chiang Chi-der (江自得) has published eleven volumes of poetry, one volume of collected essays and a professional textbook, a truly remarkable feat for a poet who was also a practicing doctor.
In 1989, he joined Li Poetry and in the following 4 years (1989-2003), had four books of verse published. After his retirement in 2003, he focused on the composition of longer poems, coming out with Ten Lines of Poetry to NK in 2005, including both Ten Lines of Poetry to NK, 30 poems in all, and Diaries of Time, 15 poems in all, which form the crux of this collection.
Chiang Chi-der had keen insight not only into his patients but also the society they lived in. The subject matter he dealt with in most of his works was mainly beauty (not confined to aesthetics), love (love for human beings, love for his native land,and love for his home country, Taiwan), and creativity (poetic writing).
本書內含兩個詩組：「時間筆記──致NS」(共十五首)及「給NK的十行詩」（共三十首）。「時間筆記──致NS」的主題是時間，從時間的形象化來表示時間的快慢、無情與記憶之間的關係，最後以病人垂死前對於時間的眷戀與無奈來表示生命的微小。字裡行間充滿了醫生的人文情懷，以及對於生命的尊重。「給NK的十行詩」也是詩組，共有三十首詩，以美為標的。「美」起於我們對於美的事物之印象，透過歷練與閱讀或旅行，對於「美」的形象更為多元，然而核心總在於令人愉悅令人舒服的感覺。
作者簡介
江自得
現任台中榮民總醫院教學顧問，曾任台中榮民總醫院胸腔內科主任、台杏文教基金會董事長、文學台灣雜誌社副社長。著有《那天，我輕輕觸著了你的傷口》(1990)、《故鄉的太陽》(1992)、《聽診器的那端》(1996)、《那一支受傷的歌》(2003)、《給NK的十行詩》(2005)、《遙遠的悲哀》(2006)、《月亮緩緩下降》(2007)、《Ilha Formosa》(2010)、《台灣蝴蝶阿香與帕洛克》(2011)等十一冊詩集，另有《漂泊》(2003)散文集及醫學專書《實用胸腔X光診斷學》等共十三本書，不含其他的選集，已然卷帙浩繁，著述豐富。
譯者簡介
鍾榮富
美國伊利諾大學香檳校區(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)語言學博士。曾任國立高雄師範大學英語系主任兼研究所所長、台灣語言暨教學研究所所長、客家文化研究所創所所長、新加坡國立大學高級訪問教授(2007-2009)，現任南台科技大學應用英語系講座教授。
引言 (Forward)
時間筆記(15首) (Diaries of Time - to NS,15 poems)
給NK的十行詩(30首) (Ten lines of Poetry - to NK, 30 poems)
短詩選(10首) (Other short poems,10)
時間筆記（十五首）
──致NS
第一首
從圖書館的窗口下望
你看到時間，在馬路上前進
時而匍匐蜿蜒，時而高速衝刺
這令你想起，這世上有什麼事物
比在鼎沸的人言人語裡靜止的時間
更憂傷
如果太陽不斷以喪失記憶的速度
在你的夢裡沉落又升起
你將以怎樣的感動去回應
窗台上一杯餘溫尚存的咖啡
Notes on Time – To NS
No.1
Looking down from the window of the library,
You see Time, advancing along the way,
At times at a crawl, at others sprinting by.
You wonder if there are things
Infinitely sadder
Than frozen Time amidst a cacophony of voices.
If the sun continued at a speed surpassing memory,
Rising and setting in your dreams,
With what kind of emotion would you face
The still- warm cup of coffee on the window-sill?
給NK 的十行詩 (30 首)
從白色的長廊那端，妳款款走來
背後的光把動態的妳繪成
一幅莫迪里安尼與竹久夢二的混成畫
留駐妳臉龐上那潔白的語言
猶如晨風中伸手可及的陽光
綿綿流瀉，向靜默的一切
我意識到
一種純粹的美
無比震撼，向四處延蔓
從白色的長廊這端，妳輕輕走過
Ten Lines of Poetry to NK
From yonder end of the white hallway, you walk hither
slowly.
The lighting in the background depicts you
As a Montage of Modigliani and Takehisa Yumeji.
That language stationed on your face pure-white
Is like the newly-dawned sun in the morning breeze
Whose gentle wave breaks over the silent all.
I became conscious of
Beauty of the purest sense,
The utmost shock ripples outward.
From hither end of the white hallway,
You lightly walked past.
短詩選
回到原點
下班後
回到久不彈唱的心房裡
一切都靜默了
大海和長天的溫柔
在無語的黃昏時刻
漸漸飽滿
感到骨骸裡深藏某些言語
應和著天地間的呼吸──
當無限延長的我的身影
跨過國土，跨過北回歸線
跨過遙遠的星球
且終於蜿蜒著回到原點
多遙遠的溫柔啊！
Other short poems
Back to the Starting Point
After work,
I return to the long-silent heart,
Where all is quiet.
The gentleness of the ocean and skies
In the wordless dusk,
Gradually swell.
Some languages are buried within the bones,
Breathing in tandem with the universe.
When the infinite extends my shadows,
Beyond nation, beyond the Tropic of Cancer,
Even beyond the distant planets,
Then finally back to the point of origin following awinding
road,
All is quiet.