(Emily Dickinson,1830 – 1886)
0164. 我无法告诉你 - 然而你感觉到它
(美)狄金森
舒啸 译
我无法告诉你 - 然而你感觉到它 -
你也无法让我得知 -
圣徒们,带着喜气的写字板和铅笔
解开我们四月天的谜语!
消逝了的绿茵上消逝了的嬉戏
也比不上它的甜蜜!
骑士们的马蹄绕过梦寐的边际
也比不上它的迅疾!
让我们谦卑地在它中间来去
面孔由面纱遮蔽 -
据说那些彬彬有礼的大天使
就是这样去谒见上帝!
轮不到我 - 拿着它夸夸其谈!
也轮不到你 - 发言
去对着哪位时髦的女士说
“迷人的四月天”!
而是交给 - 天国的“彼得·帕里”!
迟钝的孩童们
凭借它准备好去诵读
更加崇高的诗文!
(J65 / Fr164)
译记:只有圣徒才能道出四月天的奥秘。我们能够感觉却无力描述,只能谦卑地漫步其中,而不要用天气的寒暄套语来败坏这份美好。四月天轻疾的甜蜜其实是为了让我们准备就绪,迎接更美好的时光。
最后一节的“彼得·帕里”是美国著名儿童读物作家Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793 – 1860)的笔名。“迟钝的孩童们”是指我们,“更加崇高的诗文”是指更加美好的时光,也就是狄金森喜爱的夏天。
(门德尔松《无言歌》之A大调“春之歌”)
Dickinson 原诗:
“I can't tell you — but you feel it”
I can't tell you — but you feel it —
Nor can you tell me —
Saints, with ravished slate and pencil
Solve our April Day!
Sweeter than a vanished frolic
From a vanished green!
Swifter than the hoofs of Horsemen
Round a Ledge of dream!
Modest, let us walk among it
With our faces veiled —
As they say polite Archangels
Do in meeting God!
Not for me — to prate about it!
Not for you — to say
To some fashionable Lady
"Charming April Day"!
Rather — Heaven's "Peter Parley"!
By which Children slow
To sublimer Recitation
Are prepared to go!
(J65 / Fr164)
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