小鸟夫人（The Bird Frau）

丽塔德芙/作
孩子们回到家时，一切都不再是
他离开时的样子——她的围裙、后楼梯，
还有太阳，在法国失去了制空权时
田里的鸟儿吓得飞起，
一幅呼拉拉炮火织成的帘子——
                       可怜啊！
她的儿子，她的男人。她走进屋，喂那只鹦鹉，
折断它的脖子。面疙瘩在火炉上冒着泡泡，
风铃在蒸汽上方叮叮当当，她的脸
在厅堂的镜子里，有些浮肿，像一颗心。
让一切都发疯吧！
                   蓝樫鸟，乌鸦！
她把板油挂在树枝上，空气迅速
用微小的痉挛性麻痹包围她的头
——椋鸟、雀鸟——她的头是一顶羽冠。
她吃得少，长得轻，空气钻过
隧道一样的骨头，唱着
                    一支小曲。
“一支小曲，孩子们！” 孩子们跑了。
她在院子里走来走去，像一只破布鸟。
还在打仗，她天亮便起身，留意着
鲁迪，拄着拐杖回家，
细细的双腿平衡着他生命的原子。
The Bird Frau
When the boys came home, everything stopped
the way he left it—her apron, the back stairs,
the sun losing altitude over France
as the birds scared up from the fields,
a whirring curtain of flack—
———-Barmherzigkeit!
her son, her man. She went inside, fed the parakeet,
broke its neck. Spaetzle bubbling on the stove,
windchimes tinkling above the steam, her face
in the hall mirror, bloated, a heart.
Let everything go wild!
———-Blue jays, crows!
She hung suet from branches, the air quick
around her head with tiny spastic machinery
—starlings, finches—her head a crown of feathers.
She ate less, grew lighter, air tunneling
through bone, singing
———-a small song.
“Ein Liedchen, Kinder!” The children ran away.
She moved about the yard like an old rag bird.
Still at war, she rose at dawn, watching out
for Rudi, come home on crutches,
the thin legs balancing his atom of life.