《致那位说人在死去时语法是不重要的学生》 by 法萨诺

致那位说人在死去时语法是不重要的学生  林木译

 

不清楚的表达是致命的。

比如修饰语放错位置：

毫无希望，风没有打动他。

难道是风毫无希望？

显然作者本意是，

毫无希望，他不为风所动。

可是肯定有人告诉过作者

要避免被动语态，不惜一切

代价，就像要避开激情，

而作者，也确实感受到了那种寒意——

当我们变得被动时，

生命的代价有多高昂（那个恋人最后的敲门声

永远没有被回应），

所以作者选择了这个句式：

毫无希望，风没有打动他。

而其中的差别，

是在谜与混乱之间，

是在风的静止与灵魂的

紧闭之间。

而且为什么不呢？为什么

风不能有希望？

我不知道。我只知道

这重要。每一件事都重要。什么

被抹去。谁在轰炸谁。

我花了一整天，才终于正确地误解了：

忘记了他们的孩子，征服者

摧毁了他们。

 

For the Student Who Said Grammar Doesn’t Matter When People Are Dying

Joseph Fasano

 

What can kill is unclarity.

The misplaced modifier, for instance:

Having no hope, the wind didn’t move him.

Did the wind have no hope?

Clearly the writer meant,

Having no hope, he wasn’t moved by the wind.

But someone no doubt had told the writer

about the passive voice, to avoid it

at all costs, like passion,

and the writer, feeling with a chill

how costly life can be

when we are passive (the lover’s last knock

unanswered at the door),

opted for this construction.

Having no hope, the wind didn’t move him.

The difference

is between mystery and confusion,

between the wind’s stillness and a soul

that won’t be opened.

And why not? Why can’t

the wind hope?

I don’t know. I just know

it matters. Everything matters. What is erasing

what. Who is bombing whom.

It took me all day to misunderstand correctly:

Forgetting their children, the conquerors

destroyed them.