撤退的风, etc -- 露易丝.格吕克

 

露易丝.格吕克
(Louise Gluck)
新当选的美国国会图书馆桂冠诗人露易丝.格吕克1943年生于纽约，在哥伦比亚大学师从丝坦利.库尼茨，后在威廉姆丝学院获得了法律学位，毕业后曾在哥达德学院教书。出版有诗集《七个时代》（TheSevenAges2001），《新生》（VitaNova1999,获得《波士顿图书评论》主办的“宾汉诗歌奖”），《草地》（Meadowlands1996），《野鸢尾》（TheWildIris1992,获普利策诗歌奖和美国诗歌协会“W．C．威廉姆丝诗歌奖”），《阿拉若山》（Ararat1990,获R．C．罗比特国家诗歌奖），《阿喀琉丝的胜利》（TheTriumphofAchilles1985,获美国的全国书评奖）。格吕克还出版过一些评论及散文集。1999年当选为美国诗歌学会理事。2003年8月28日，美国国会图书馆在华盛顿宣布，普利策奖得主、著名女诗人露易丝.格吕克当选为新的美国国会图书馆桂冠诗人。

撤退的风

当我做成你们,我就爱着你们.
现在我怜悯你们.

我给了你们所需的一切:
大地之床,蓝天毛毯—

随着我进一步远离你们
我就更加看清楚你们.
你们的心灵如今应很阔大
它们不该是
多嘴的小东西—

我给了你们每一样礼物,
蔚蓝的春之晨,
时间之多你们都不知该怎样利用—
你们索要更多的礼物,那个为
另外的生物准备的礼物.

不论你们希望什么,
你们将不会在花园中在成长的植物中,
找到你们自己.
你们的生活不象它们那样是循环的:

你们的生活是鸟儿飞翔
在平静中开始和结束—
开始和结束,以类似这
弧形从白桦树
至苹果树.

Retreating Wind

When I made you, I loved you.
Now I pity you.

I gave you all you needed:
bed of earth, blanket of blue air--

As I get further away from you
I see you more clearly.
Your souls should have been immense by now,
not what they are,
small talking things--

I gave you every gift,
blue of the spring morning,
time you didn't know how to use--
you wanted more, the one gift
reserved for another creation.

Whatever you hoped,
you will not find yourselves in the garden,
among the growing plants.
Your lives are not circular like theirs:

your lives are the bird's flight
which begins and ends in stillness--
which begins and ends, in form echoing
this arc from the white birch
to the apple tree.

 

恐惧埋葬

在那空场地,在早晨,
那具尸体等待着认领.
幽灵坐其旁,在一块小岩石上—
没什么再来给它身形.

想着那尸体的孤独.
夜晚在修剪过的场地上踱步,
它的影子紧紧连接着四周.
如此一个漫长的旅途.

已见村庄那微颤的灯光
不为它停留依旧扫掠在路上.
它们看来还很远,
那些木门,面包和牛奶
象重物放在桌子上.

The Fear Of Burial

In the empty field, in the morning,
the body waits to be claimed.
The spirit sits beside it, on a small rock--
nothing comes to give it form again.

Think of the body's loneliness.
At night pacing the sheared field,
its shadow buckled tightly around.
Such a long journey.

And already the remote, trembling lights of the village
not pausing for it as they scan the rows.
How far away they seem,
the wooden doors, the bread and milk
laid like weights on the table.

 

晨歌

你想知道我如何打发我的时间?
我走在前面的草坪,假装
除草.你应该知道
我从不跪下除草,从不自
花床拉起几簇三叶草;其实
我正在寻找勇气,寻找我的生活
会改变的证据,尽管
需要花很久时间,检查
每一簇以寻找象征性的
叶子,很快夏日将终,叶子
已经转变,总是病树
在先,这将死的化为
亮黄色,而几只暗色的鸟表演
乐声唱晚.你想看我的手吗?
现仍是空空的就象在第一个音符上.
或是那要点没有
标记总是连续不断.

 

Matins

You want to know how I spend my time?
I walk the front lawn, pretending
to be weeding. You ought to know
I'm never weeding, on my knees, pulling
clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact
I'm looking for courage, for some evidence
my life will change, though
it takes forever, checking
each clump for the symbolic
leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already
the leaves turning, always the sick trees
going first, the dying turning
brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform
their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?
As empty now as at the first note.
Or was the point always
to continue without a sign?

 

榆木

整天我都在试图区分
需要和欲望。现在，于黑暗中，
对我们，木材的营造和设计者，
我只有感到苦涩悲伤，
因为我一直不变地
注视着这些榆木
和看到扭曲苦痛
的过程，静止的树
是痛苦的，并理解到
它不会做成形除了扭曲之状。

Elms

All day I tried to distinguish
need from desire. Now, in the dark,
I feel only bitter sadness for us,
the builders, the planers of wood,
because I have been looking
steadily at these elms
and seen the process that creates
the writhing, stationary tree
is torment, and have understood
it will make no forms but twisted forms.

 

画像

一个孩子画着一幅人体轮廓。
她画她所能画的，但全是空白，
她不能在那填入她知道的东西。
在无支撑的线条内，她知道
生命正在消失；她切换
一个又一个背景。象个孩子
她转向她的母亲。

而你画那颗心
用以抵付她创造的空虚。

Portrait

A child draws the outline of a body.
She draws what she can, but it is white all through,
she cannot fill in what she knows is there.
Within the unsupported line, she knows
that life is missing; she has cut
one background from another. Like a child,
she turns to her mother.

And you draw the heart
against the emptiness she has created.

 

奥德修斯的决定

那伟大的人返回到海岛上。
现在他不会死于天堂
也不再听到
橄榄林中天堂的琵琶，
在清澈池水边苍柏之下。时代

现在开始，他再次听见
叙事大海的脉搏，
当黎明拉起后最为强健。
带我们来这里的
会带我们离去；我们的船
在遭难的港口水中摇摆。

现在符咒终止了。
使他回到他的生活，
大海只能向前汹涌澎湃。

(注：奥德修斯是荷马史诗奥德赛中的英雄。)

Odysseus' Decision

The great man turns his back on the island.
Now he will not die in paradise
nor hear again
the lutes of paradise among the olive trees,
by the clear pools under the cypresses. Time

begins now, in which he hears again
that pulse which is the narrative
sea, ar dawn when its pull is stongest.
What has brought us here
will lead us away; our ship
sways in the tined harbor water.

Now the spell is ended.
Giove him back his life,
sea that can only move forward.

 

一个怪念头

我要告诉你一些事：每天
人都在死。而那仅是开始，
每天，在殡仪馆，出生新寡妇，
新孤儿。他们两手合拢而坐，
试着去决定这新的生命。

然后他们在墓地，其中有人
是第一次。他们惊恐哭泣，
有时不哭。有人走过来
告诉他们下一步做什么，可能
说几句话，有时
将土投入敞开的墓穴里。

而那以后，每个人都回到房里，
里面突然满是来访者。
那寡妇坐在长沙发上，非常庄严，
人们排队走近她，
有时握她的手，有时拥抱她。
她找些话对每个人说
感谢他们，感谢他们的到来。

在她内心，她却想让他们离去。
她想返回墓地，
返回医院的病房里。她知道
这是不可能的。但她唯一的希望，
是让时光倒流。而只是一点点，
不需远溯至结婚和初吻之际。

A Fantasy

I'll tell you something: every day
people are dying. And that's just the beginning.
Every day, in funeral homes, new widows are born,
new orphans. They sit with their hands folded,
trying to decide about this new life.

Then they're in the cemetery, some of them
for the first time. They're frightened of crying,
sometimes of not crying. Someone leans over,
tells them what to do next, which might mean
saying a few words, sometimes
throwing dirt in the open grave.

And after that, everyone goes back to the house,
which is suddenly full of visitors.
The widow sits on the couch, very stately,
so people line up to approach her,
sometimes take her hand, sometimes embrace her.
She finds something to say to everbody,
thanks them, thanks them for coming.

In her heart, she wants them to go away.
She wants to be back in the cemetery,
back in the sickroom, the hospital. She knows
it isn't possible. But it's her only hope,
the wish to move backward. And just a little,
not so far as the marriage, the first kiss.

 

四月

没人的绝望象我的一般—

在这花园中没有你想那种事，
制造向外标志的地方；显然
那男人铲除整个一片森林，
那女人拖拖沓沓，拒绝换衣服
或洗她的头发。

难道你以为我在乎
如果你跟另一个人交谈？
可我的意思是让你知道
我期望两个更好的生物
被赋予了头脑；不然
你们实际上会互相关照
至少你们会理解
悲伤被分摊
在你俩之间，在你所有的仁慈里面，
对于我去认识你，就如深蓝
标记着野海葱，白色标记着
木紫罗兰。

April

No one's despair is like my despair--

You have no place in this garden
thinking such things, producing
the tiresome outward signs; the man
pointedly weeding an entire forest,
the woman limping, refusing to change clothes
or wash her hair.

Do you suppose I care
if you speak to one another?
But I mean you to know
I expected better of two creatures
who were given minds: if not
that you would actually care for each other
at least that you would understand
grief is distributed
between you, among all your kind, for me
to know you, as deep blue
marks the wild scilla, white
the wood violet.

野鸢尾

在我的痛苦之端
有门一扇。
听我说：你称之为死亡
我记得。
头顶，噪声，松枝变幻。
然后皆无。微弱的太阳
闪烁在干枯的地面。
生存可怕
因知觉
被葬于地下黑暗。
后来结束：令你恐惧，存在
为灵魂而不
能言，突然终结，坚硬的大地
略弯。可我感觉是鸟儿
疾飞在低矮的灌木林间。
是你不记得了
迁移自另一个世界
我告诉你我能够再说一遍：不论什么
从忘却回归都返回
去寻找一个声音：
来自我生命的中心
一个巨大的源泉，在蔚蓝的
海水上幽影深蓝。

The Wild Iris

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.
Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.
It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.
Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.
You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.

瑟西的威力

我从未把任何人变成猪。
有人是猪；我使他们
看来象猪。
我讨厌你的世界
让外表乔装内在。你的人不坏；
懒散的生活
养成了他们的习性。作为猪
他们已变得温和
由于我和我的
女士们的呵护。
然后我逆转符咒，向你展示我的
仁慈和威力。我看到
我们在此能够快乐
作为男人和女人
他们的需求很简单。同时
我预见了你的离去
你的人因我的帮助敢於迎战
咆哮凶猛的大海。你想
几滴眼泪就让我倾覆？我的朋友，
每位女魔本质上都是
实用主义者；没有人看本质而不
面对局限。如果我只想占有你
我能扣留你为囚徒。

(注：瑟西为荷马史诗[奥德赛]中的女魔。)

Circe’s Power

I never turned anyone into a pig.
Some people are pigs; I make them
Look like pigs.
I'm sick of your world
That lets the outside disguise the inside. Your men weren't bad men;
Undisciplined life
Did that to them. As pigs,
Under the care of
Me and my ladies, they
Sweetened right up.
Then I reversed the spell, showing you my goodness
As well as my power. I saw
We could be happy here,
As men and women are
When their needs are simple. In the same breath,
I foresaw your departure,
Your men with my help braving
The crying and pounding sea. You think
A few tears upset me? My friend,
Every sorceress is
A pragmatist at heart; nobody sees essence who can't
Face limitation. If I wanted only to hold you
I could hold you prisoner.

瑟西的痛苦

我非常遗憾
爱你的这些年不管
你在与不在，遗憾
那法律，那神召
阻止我持有你，大海
一块玻璃板，太阳漂白的
希腊船美神；如何
我能有魔力假如
我没有意愿
将你改变：虽然
你爱我的身体，
虽然那时你发现
我们所拥有的激情在
一切礼物之上，在那独特瞬间
超越荣誉和希望，超越
忠诚，以那结合的名义
我拒绝你
因你妻子而有的这般情感
会让你同她
度过余年，我拒绝你
再次上床
如果我不能有你。

Circe's Torment

I regret bitterly
The years of loving you in both
Your presence and absence, regret
The law, the vocation
That forbid me to keep you, the sea
A sheet of glass, the sun-bleached
Beauty of the Greek ships: how
Could I have power if
I had no wish
To transform you: as
You loved my body,
As you found there
Passion we held above
All other gifts, in that single moment
Over honor and hope, over
Loyalty, in the name of that bond
I refuse you
Such feeling for your wife
As will let you
Rest with her, I refuse you
Sleep again
If I cannot have you.

坦白

说我没有恐惧—
那不是真的。
我害怕患病，蒙羞。
象任何人一样，我有我的梦想。
但我已经学会将它们藏起，
使自己不致于满足：所有快乐
都引发命运之神生气。
它们是姐妹，野人—
最终它们没有情感
只有妒忌。

Confession

To say I'm without fear--
It wouldn't be true.
I'm afraid of sickness, humiliation.
Like anyone, I have my dreams.
But I've learned to hide them,
To protect myself
From fulfillment: all happiness
Attracts the Fates' anger.
They are sisters, savages--
In the end they have
No emotion but envy.

马

什么马能给你
我不能给你？
我注视你当你孤寂，
当你骑进奶牛场后的田地，
你的手掩藏在那匹母马的
暗色鬃毛里。
于是我知道你沉默背后的含义：
蔑视我，憎恨婚姻。然而，
你还是要我触摸你；当新娘哭泣
你大喊大叫，可当我看你时我
没见有孩子在你的身体里。
那么有什么！
什么也没有，我想。只是匆忙
抢在我死前去死。
在一场梦中，我注视你骑马
越过干涸的田地
然后下马：你们俩一起走；
在黑暗里，你们没有影子。
但我感觉到它们正朝我而来
因为在夜里它们到处去，
它们是主人主宰自己。
看着我。你以为我不明白？
什么是动物
即使没走过这无聊的一生？

Horse

What does the horse give you
That I cannot give you?
I watch you when you are alone,
When you ride into the field behind the dairy,
Your hands buried in the mare's
Dark mane.
Then I know what lies behind your silence:
Scorn, hatred of me, of marriage. Still,
You want me to touch you; you cry out
As brides cry, but when I look at you I see
There are no children in your body.
Then what is there?
Nothing, I think. Only haste
To die before I die.
In a dream, I watched you ride the horse
Over the dry fields and then
Dismount: you two walked together;
In the dark, you had no shadows.
But I felt them coming toward me
Since at night they go anywhere,
They are their own masters.
Look at me. You think I don't understand?
What is the animal
If not passage out of this life?

早期黑暗

你们如何能说
大地会给我喜悦？每样生出的
东西都是我的负担；我不能成功
是由于你们大家。

而你们会愿意向我口述，
你们乐于告诉我
谁是你们当中最宝贵的，
谁长得最象我。
你们还举出纯生命
为例展示，超然—
你们为之奋斗力争

当你们不能理解自己
你们又怎么能够理解我？
你们的记忆不够
强有力，它不会
返回至足够久远—
不要忘记你们是我的孩子。
你们遭难不是因为你们相互接触
而是因为你们被出生，
因为你们要求了
有别于我的生命。

 

Early Darkness

How can you say
earth should give me joy? Each thing
born is my burden; I cannot succeed
with all of you.

And you would like to dictate to me,
you would like to tell me
who among you is most valuable,
who most resembles me.
And you hold up as an example
the pure life, the detachment
you struggle to acheive--

How can you understand me
when you cannot understand yourselves?
Your memory is not
powerful enough, it will not
reach back far enough--

Never forget you are my children.
You are not suffering because you touched each other
but because you were born,
because you required life
separate from me.

 

红罂粟

伟大的是
没有
头脑。情感：
噢，我有那些，它们
统治我。我有
一个君主在天
叫作太阳，为他
开放，示给他
我自己心中的火，火焰
如同他的存现。
若不是一颗心怎能
这般荣耀？啊我的兄弟姐妹们，
你们曾经象我吗，在很久之前，
在你们是人以前？你们
允许自己一度开放，不会再
开放？因为的确
我现在正以你们的
方式说话。我说
是因我花落叶残。

 

The Red Poppy

The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.

 

 

七个时代

在我的第一个梦里世界出现了
咸的，苦的，禁止的，甜蜜的
在我的第二个梦里我降格了
我曾是人，我不可能仅看一个东西
因我是野兽
我不得不触摸，包容它
我藏在树丛中
我在田野里劳作直到田野光秃—
时间
绝不再来—
干枯的麦束，小箱
无花果和橄榄
我甚至以我可憎恶的人的方式爱过几次
并象每个人我把那成就称作
性爱自由
即使愚蠢荒谬
麦子被聚集存放，最后的
果子被烘干；时间
被贮藏，从未使用过，
难道它也终结了？
在我的第一个梦里世界出现了
甜蜜的，禁止的
但却没有花园，只有
原始要素
我曾是人
我不得不乞求降格
咸的，苦的，要求的，先买权的
而象每一个人，我占取，我被占取
我梦到
我被出卖了
地球在一个梦中被给予了我
在一个梦中我拥有了它。

The Seven Ages

In my first dream the world appeared
the salt, the bitter, the forbidden, the sweet
In my second I descended
I was human, I couldn't just see a thing
beast that I am
I had to touch, to contain it
I hid in the groves,
I worked in the fields until the fields were bare --
time
that will never come again --
the dry wheat bound, caskets
of figs and olives
I even loved a few times in my disgusting human way
and like everyone I called that accomplishment
erotic freedom,
absurd as it seems
The wheat gathered and stored, the last
fruit dried: time
that is hoarded, that is never used,
does it also end?
In my first dream the world appeared
the sweet, the forbidden
but there was no garden, only
raw elements
I was human:
I had to beg to descend
the salt, the bitter, the demanding, the preemptive
And like everyone, I took, I was taken
I dreamed
I was betrayed:
Earth was given to me in a dream
In a dream I possessed it

 

瑟西的哀情

最终，我自己使
你妻子明白作为
一个神我会，在她自己的房中，在
艾萨斯，有声音
没有身体：她
暂停下她的编织，她的头
转向右，又转向左
尽管肯定没有希望
找出任何发声的
物体：我怀疑
她将返回到她的织布机
带着她目前所知。当
你再看见她时，告诉她
这就是一个神如何告别：
如果我永远在她的脑海中
我就会永远在你的生活中。

Circe's Grief

In the end, I made myself
Known to your wife as
A god would, in her own house, in
Ithaca, a voice
Without a body: she
Paused in her weaving, her head turning
First to the right, then left
Though it was hopeless of course
To trace that sound to any
Objective source: I doubt
She will return to her loom
With what she knows now. When
You see her again, tell her
This is how a god says goodbye:
If I am in her head forever
I am in your life forever.

 

愿望

记得那次你许了愿吗？

我许好多愿。

那次有关蝴蝶
我对你说了谎。我总想知道
你想要什么。

你认为我想要什么？

我不知道。想要我回来，
想要我们最终以某种方式在一起。

我想要我一直想要的。
我想要另一首诗。

The Wish

Remember that time you made the wish?

I make a lot of wishes.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.

What do you think I wished for?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.

I wished for what I always wish for.
I wished for another poem.

 
(Louise Gluck)
新当选的美国国会图书馆桂冠诗人露易丝.格吕克1943年生于纽约，在哥伦比亚大学师从丝坦利.库尼茨，后在威廉姆丝学院获得了法律学位，毕业后曾在哥达德学院教书。出版有诗集《七个时代》（TheSevenAges2001），《新生》（VitaNova1999,获得《波士顿图书评论》主办的“宾汉诗歌奖”），《草地》（Meadowlands1996），《野鸢尾》（TheWildIris1992,获普利策诗歌奖和美国诗歌协会“W．C．威廉姆丝诗歌奖”），《阿拉若山》（Ararat1990,获R．C．罗比特国家诗歌奖），《阿喀琉丝的胜利》（TheTriumphofAchilles1985,获美国的全国书评奖）。格吕克还出版过一些评论及散文集。1999年当选为美国诗歌学会理事。2003年8月28日，美国国会图书馆在华盛顿宣布，普利策奖得主、著名女诗人露易丝.格吕克当选为新的美国国会图书馆桂冠诗人。

撤退的风

当我做成你们,我就爱着你们.
现在我怜悯你们.

我给了你们所需的一切:
大地之床,蓝天毛毯—

随着我进一步远离你们
我就更加看清楚你们.
你们的心灵如今应很阔大
它们不该是
多嘴的小东西—

我给了你们每一样礼物,
蔚蓝的春之晨,
时间之多你们都不知该怎样利用—
你们索要更多的礼物,那个为
另外的生物准备的礼物.

不论你们希望什么,
你们将不会在花园中在成长的植物中,
找到你们自己.
你们的生活不象它们那样是循环的:

你们的生活是鸟儿飞翔
在平静中开始和结束—
开始和结束,以类似这
弧形从白桦树
至苹果树.

Retreating Wind

When I made you, I loved you.
Now I pity you.

I gave you all you needed:
bed of earth, blanket of blue air--

As I get further away from you
I see you more clearly.
Your souls should have been immense by now,
not what they are,
small talking things--

I gave you every gift,
blue of the spring morning,
time you didn't know how to use--
you wanted more, the one gift
reserved for another creation.

Whatever you hoped,
you will not find yourselves in the garden,
among the growing plants.
Your lives are not circular like theirs:

your lives are the bird's flight
which begins and ends in stillness--
which begins and ends, in form echoing
this arc from the white birch
to the apple tree.

 

恐惧埋葬

在那空场地,在早晨,
那具尸体等待着认领.
幽灵坐其旁,在一块小岩石上—
没什么再来给它身形.

想着那尸体的孤独.
夜晚在修剪过的场地上踱步,
它的影子紧紧连接着四周.
如此一个漫长的旅途.

已见村庄那微颤的灯光
不为它停留依旧扫掠在路上.
它们看来还很远,
那些木门,面包和牛奶
象重物放在桌子上.

The Fear Of Burial

In the empty field, in the morning,
the body waits to be claimed.
The spirit sits beside it, on a small rock--
nothing comes to give it form again.

Think of the body's loneliness.
At night pacing the sheared field,
its shadow buckled tightly around.
Such a long journey.

And already the remote, trembling lights of the village
not pausing for it as they scan the rows.
How far away they seem,
the wooden doors, the bread and milk
laid like weights on the table.

 

晨歌

你想知道我如何打发我的时间?
我走在前面的草坪,假装
除草.你应该知道
我从不跪下除草,从不自
花床拉起几簇三叶草;其实
我正在寻找勇气,寻找我的生活
会改变的证据,尽管
需要花很久时间,检查
每一簇以寻找象征性的
叶子,很快夏日将终,叶子
已经转变,总是病树
在先,这将死的化为
亮黄色,而几只暗色的鸟表演
乐声唱晚.你想看我的手吗?
现仍是空空的就象在第一个音符上.
或是那要点没有
标记总是连续不断.

 

Matins

You want to know how I spend my time?
I walk the front lawn, pretending
to be weeding. You ought to know
I'm never weeding, on my knees, pulling
clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact
I'm looking for courage, for some evidence
my life will change, though
it takes forever, checking
each clump for the symbolic
leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already
the leaves turning, always the sick trees
going first, the dying turning
brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform
their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?
As empty now as at the first note.
Or was the point always
to continue without a sign?

 

榆木

整天我都在试图区分
需要和欲望。现在，于黑暗中，
对我们，木材的营造和设计者，
我只有感到苦涩悲伤，
因为我一直不变地
注视着这些榆木
和看到扭曲苦痛
的过程，静止的树
是痛苦的，并理解到
它不会做成形除了扭曲之状。

Elms

All day I tried to distinguish
need from desire. Now, in the dark,
I feel only bitter sadness for us,
the builders, the planers of wood,
because I have been looking
steadily at these elms
and seen the process that creates
the writhing, stationary tree
is torment, and have understood
it will make no forms but twisted forms.

 

画像

一个孩子画着一幅人体轮廓。
她画她所能画的，但全是空白，
她不能在那填入她知道的东西。
在无支撑的线条内，她知道
生命正在消失；她切换
一个又一个背景。象个孩子
她转向她的母亲。

而你画那颗心
用以抵付她创造的空虚。

Portrait

A child draws the outline of a body.
She draws what she can, but it is white all through,
she cannot fill in what she knows is there.
Within the unsupported line, she knows
that life is missing; she has cut
one background from another. Like a child,
she turns to her mother.

And you draw the heart
against the emptiness she has created.

 

奥德修斯的决定

那伟大的人返回到海岛上。
现在他不会死于天堂
也不再听到
橄榄林中天堂的琵琶，
在清澈池水边苍柏之下。时代

现在开始，他再次听见
叙事大海的脉搏，
当黎明拉起后最为强健。
带我们来这里的
会带我们离去；我们的船
在遭难的港口水中摇摆。

现在符咒终止了。
使他回到他的生活，
大海只能向前汹涌澎湃。

(注：奥德修斯是荷马史诗奥德赛中的英雄。)

Odysseus' Decision

The great man turns his back on the island.
Now he will not die in paradise
nor hear again
the lutes of paradise among the olive trees,
by the clear pools under the cypresses. Time

begins now, in which he hears again
that pulse which is the narrative
sea, ar dawn when its pull is stongest.
What has brought us here
will lead us away; our ship
sways in the tined harbor water.

Now the spell is ended.
Giove him back his life,
sea that can only move forward.

 

一个怪念头

我要告诉你一些事：每天
人都在死。而那仅是开始，
每天，在殡仪馆，出生新寡妇，
新孤儿。他们两手合拢而坐，
试着去决定这新的生命。

然后他们在墓地，其中有人
是第一次。他们惊恐哭泣，
有时不哭。有人走过来
告诉他们下一步做什么，可能
说几句话，有时
将土投入敞开的墓穴里。

而那以后，每个人都回到房里，
里面突然满是来访者。
那寡妇坐在长沙发上，非常庄严，
人们排队走近她，
有时握她的手，有时拥抱她。
她找些话对每个人说
感谢他们，感谢他们的到来。

在她内心，她却想让他们离去。
她想返回墓地，
返回医院的病房里。她知道
这是不可能的。但她唯一的希望，
是让时光倒流。而只是一点点，
不需远溯至结婚和初吻之际。

A Fantasy

I'll tell you something: every day
people are dying. And that's just the beginning.
Every day, in funeral homes, new widows are born,
new orphans. They sit with their hands folded,
trying to decide about this new life.

Then they're in the cemetery, some of them
for the first time. They're frightened of crying,
sometimes of not crying. Someone leans over,
tells them what to do next, which might mean
saying a few words, sometimes
throwing dirt in the open grave.

And after that, everyone goes back to the house,
which is suddenly full of visitors.
The widow sits on the couch, very stately,
so people line up to approach her,
sometimes take her hand, sometimes embrace her.
She finds something to say to everbody,
thanks them, thanks them for coming.

In her heart, she wants them to go away.
She wants to be back in the cemetery,
back in the sickroom, the hospital. She knows
it isn't possible. But it's her only hope,
the wish to move backward. And just a little,
not so far as the marriage, the first kiss.

 

四月

没人的绝望象我的一般—

在这花园中没有你想那种事，
制造向外标志的地方；显然
那男人铲除整个一片森林，
那女人拖拖沓沓，拒绝换衣服
或洗她的头发。

难道你以为我在乎
如果你跟另一个人交谈？
可我的意思是让你知道
我期望两个更好的生物
被赋予了头脑；不然
你们实际上会互相关照
至少你们会理解
悲伤被分摊
在你俩之间，在你所有的仁慈里面，
对于我去认识你，就如深蓝
标记着野海葱，白色标记着
木紫罗兰。

April

No one's despair is like my despair--

You have no place in this garden
thinking such things, producing
the tiresome outward signs; the man
pointedly weeding an entire forest,
the woman limping, refusing to change clothes
or wash her hair.

Do you suppose I care
if you speak to one another?
But I mean you to know
I expected better of two creatures
who were given minds: if not
that you would actually care for each other
at least that you would understand
grief is distributed
between you, among all your kind, for me
to know you, as deep blue
marks the wild scilla, white
the wood violet.

野鸢尾

在我的痛苦之端
有门一扇。
听我说：你称之为死亡
我记得。
头顶，噪声，松枝变幻。
然后皆无。微弱的太阳
闪烁在干枯的地面。
生存可怕
因知觉
被葬于地下黑暗。
后来结束：令你恐惧，存在
为灵魂而不
能言，突然终结，坚硬的大地
略弯。可我感觉是鸟儿
疾飞在低矮的灌木林间。
是你不记得了
迁移自另一个世界
我告诉你我能够再说一遍：不论什么
从忘却回归都返回
去寻找一个声音：
来自我生命的中心
一个巨大的源泉，在蔚蓝的
海水上幽影深蓝。

The Wild Iris

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.
Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.
Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.
It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.
Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.
You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:
from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water.

瑟西的威力

我从未把任何人变成猪。
有人是猪；我使他们
看来象猪。
我讨厌你的世界
让外表乔装内在。你的人不坏；
懒散的生活
养成了他们的习性。作为猪
他们已变得温和
由于我和我的
女士们的呵护。
然后我逆转符咒，向你展示我的
仁慈和威力。我看到
我们在此能够快乐
作为男人和女人
他们的需求很简单。同时
我预见了你的离去
你的人因我的帮助敢於迎战
咆哮凶猛的大海。你想
几滴眼泪就让我倾覆？我的朋友，
每位女魔本质上都是
实用主义者；没有人看本质而不
面对局限。如果我只想占有你
我能扣留你为囚徒。

(注：瑟西为荷马史诗[奥德赛]中的女魔。)

Circe’s Power

I never turned anyone into a pig.
Some people are pigs; I make them
Look like pigs.
I'm sick of your world
That lets the outside disguise the inside. Your men weren't bad men;
Undisciplined life
Did that to them. As pigs,
Under the care of
Me and my ladies, they
Sweetened right up.
Then I reversed the spell, showing you my goodness
As well as my power. I saw
We could be happy here,
As men and women are
When their needs are simple. In the same breath,
I foresaw your departure,
Your men with my help braving
The crying and pounding sea. You think
A few tears upset me? My friend,
Every sorceress is
A pragmatist at heart; nobody sees essence who can't
Face limitation. If I wanted only to hold you
I could hold you prisoner.

瑟西的痛苦

我非常遗憾
爱你的这些年不管
你在与不在，遗憾
那法律，那神召
阻止我持有你，大海
一块玻璃板，太阳漂白的
希腊船美神；如何
我能有魔力假如
我没有意愿
将你改变：虽然
你爱我的身体，
虽然那时你发现
我们所拥有的激情在
一切礼物之上，在那独特瞬间
超越荣誉和希望，超越
忠诚，以那结合的名义
我拒绝你
因你妻子而有的这般情感
会让你同她
度过余年，我拒绝你
再次上床
如果我不能有你。

Circe's Torment

I regret bitterly
The years of loving you in both
Your presence and absence, regret
The law, the vocation
That forbid me to keep you, the sea
A sheet of glass, the sun-bleached
Beauty of the Greek ships: how
Could I have power if
I had no wish
To transform you: as
You loved my body,
As you found there
Passion we held above
All other gifts, in that single moment
Over honor and hope, over
Loyalty, in the name of that bond
I refuse you
Such feeling for your wife
As will let you
Rest with her, I refuse you
Sleep again
If I cannot have you.

坦白

说我没有恐惧—
那不是真的。
我害怕患病，蒙羞。
象任何人一样，我有我的梦想。
但我已经学会将它们藏起，
使自己不致于满足：所有快乐
都引发命运之神生气。
它们是姐妹，野人—
最终它们没有情感
只有妒忌。

Confession

To say I'm without fear--
It wouldn't be true.
I'm afraid of sickness, humiliation.
Like anyone, I have my dreams.
But I've learned to hide them,
To protect myself
From fulfillment: all happiness
Attracts the Fates' anger.
They are sisters, savages--
In the end they have
No emotion but envy.

马

什么马能给你
我不能给你？
我注视你当你孤寂，
当你骑进奶牛场后的田地，
你的手掩藏在那匹母马的
暗色鬃毛里。
于是我知道你沉默背后的含义：
蔑视我，憎恨婚姻。然而，
你还是要我触摸你；当新娘哭泣
你大喊大叫，可当我看你时我
没见有孩子在你的身体里。
那么有什么！
什么也没有，我想。只是匆忙
抢在我死前去死。
在一场梦中，我注视你骑马
越过干涸的田地
然后下马：你们俩一起走；
在黑暗里，你们没有影子。
但我感觉到它们正朝我而来
因为在夜里它们到处去，
它们是主人主宰自己。
看着我。你以为我不明白？
什么是动物
即使没走过这无聊的一生？

Horse

What does the horse give you
That I cannot give you?
I watch you when you are alone,
When you ride into the field behind the dairy,
Your hands buried in the mare's
Dark mane.
Then I know what lies behind your silence:
Scorn, hatred of me, of marriage. Still,
You want me to touch you; you cry out
As brides cry, but when I look at you I see
There are no children in your body.
Then what is there?
Nothing, I think. Only haste
To die before I die.
In a dream, I watched you ride the horse
Over the dry fields and then
Dismount: you two walked together;
In the dark, you had no shadows.
But I felt them coming toward me
Since at night they go anywhere,
They are their own masters.
Look at me. You think I don't understand?
What is the animal
If not passage out of this life?

早期黑暗

你们如何能说
大地会给我喜悦？每样生出的
东西都是我的负担；我不能成功
是由于你们大家。

而你们会愿意向我口述，
你们乐于告诉我
谁是你们当中最宝贵的，
谁长得最象我。
你们还举出纯生命
为例展示，超然—
你们为之奋斗力争

当你们不能理解自己
你们又怎么能够理解我？
你们的记忆不够
强有力，它不会
返回至足够久远—
不要忘记你们是我的孩子。
你们遭难不是因为你们相互接触
而是因为你们被出生，
因为你们要求了
有别于我的生命。

 

Early Darkness

How can you say
earth should give me joy? Each thing
born is my burden; I cannot succeed
with all of you.

And you would like to dictate to me,
you would like to tell me
who among you is most valuable,
who most resembles me.
And you hold up as an example
the pure life, the detachment
you struggle to acheive--

How can you understand me
when you cannot understand yourselves?
Your memory is not
powerful enough, it will not
reach back far enough--

Never forget you are my children.
You are not suffering because you touched each other
but because you were born,
because you required life
separate from me.

 

红罂粟

伟大的是
没有
头脑。情感：
噢，我有那些，它们
统治我。我有
一个君主在天
叫作太阳，为他
开放，示给他
我自己心中的火，火焰
如同他的存现。
若不是一颗心怎能
这般荣耀？啊我的兄弟姐妹们，
你们曾经象我吗，在很久之前，
在你们是人以前？你们
允许自己一度开放，不会再
开放？因为的确
我现在正以你们的
方式说话。我说
是因我花落叶残。

 

The Red Poppy

The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.

 

 

七个时代

在我的第一个梦里世界出现了
咸的，苦的，禁止的，甜蜜的
在我的第二个梦里我降格了
我曾是人，我不可能仅看一个东西
因我是野兽
我不得不触摸，包容它
我藏在树丛中
我在田野里劳作直到田野光秃—
时间
绝不再来—
干枯的麦束，小箱
无花果和橄榄
我甚至以我可憎恶的人的方式爱过几次
并象每个人我把那成就称作
性爱自由
即使愚蠢荒谬
麦子被聚集存放，最后的
果子被烘干；时间
被贮藏，从未使用过，
难道它也终结了？
在我的第一个梦里世界出现了
甜蜜的，禁止的
但却没有花园，只有
原始要素
我曾是人
我不得不乞求降格
咸的，苦的，要求的，先买权的
而象每一个人，我占取，我被占取
我梦到
我被出卖了
地球在一个梦中被给予了我
在一个梦中我拥有了它。

The Seven Ages

In my first dream the world appeared
the salt, the bitter, the forbidden, the sweet
In my second I descended
I was human, I couldn't just see a thing
beast that I am
I had to touch, to contain it
I hid in the groves,
I worked in the fields until the fields were bare --
time
that will never come again --
the dry wheat bound, caskets
of figs and olives
I even loved a few times in my disgusting human way
and like everyone I called that accomplishment
erotic freedom,
absurd as it seems
The wheat gathered and stored, the last
fruit dried: time
that is hoarded, that is never used,
does it also end?
In my first dream the world appeared
the sweet, the forbidden
but there was no garden, only
raw elements
I was human:
I had to beg to descend
the salt, the bitter, the demanding, the preemptive
And like everyone, I took, I was taken
I dreamed
I was betrayed:
Earth was given to me in a dream
In a dream I possessed it

 

瑟西的哀情

最终，我自己使
你妻子明白作为
一个神我会，在她自己的房中，在
艾萨斯，有声音
没有身体：她
暂停下她的编织，她的头
转向右，又转向左
尽管肯定没有希望
找出任何发声的
物体：我怀疑
她将返回到她的织布机
带着她目前所知。当
你再看见她时，告诉她
这就是一个神如何告别：
如果我永远在她的脑海中
我就会永远在你的生活中。

Circe's Grief

In the end, I made myself
Known to your wife as
A god would, in her own house, in
Ithaca, a voice
Without a body: she
Paused in her weaving, her head turning
First to the right, then left
Though it was hopeless of course
To trace that sound to any
Objective source: I doubt
She will return to her loom
With what she knows now. When
You see her again, tell her
This is how a god says goodbye:
If I am in her head forever
I am in your life forever.

 

愿望

记得那次你许了愿吗？

我许好多愿。

那次有关蝴蝶
我对你说了谎。我总想知道
你想要什么。

你认为我想要什么？

我不知道。想要我回来，
想要我们最终以某种方式在一起。

我想要我一直想要的。
我想要另一首诗。

The Wish

Remember that time you made the wish?

I make a lot of wishes.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.

What do you think I wished for?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd somehow be together in the end.

I wished for what I always wish for.
I wished for another poem.